Ihe Scriptural Foundation 
for Christian Liberality 





Class JMaXQ 
Book 






GopightlJ' 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



I 




RICHARD HENRY LAMPKIN. 



The 
Scriptural Foundation 
for Christian Liberality 



BY 



R. H. LAMPKIN 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY 
ST. LOUIS, MO. 



:&n/ii 



U3 



SEP 15 1904 

;OI,ASB <^XXg. No, 
I 0©PY B 

"KJDjamajuiiwijmu. i hlw — — eaKM 



Copyrighted, 1904, by 
R. H. Lampkin. 






PREFACE 

The financiering of the Kingdom of God on 
earth is one of the distressing problems to be 
solved, and is a problem, not of figures, but one 
of equation of conditions, of deducing true 
values of certain quantities from others on 
which they depend. And any work proposing 
a solution of this problem must consider the 
question in this light. The author assumes 
that he has done this in this volume, and with 
confidence born of conviction, sends it forth 
upon its mission to give light in the darkness 
that now veils the Kingdom, hoping to bring 

** Again the golden day resuming its right, 
And ruling in just equation with the night." 

lyA Junta Coi,., May, 1904. 



INTRODUCTION 

It gives me pleasure, having read this book 
in manuscript, to comply with the author's re- 
quest to write a brief introduction. 

This book deals with one of the vital prob- 
lems before the Church to-day. The Church 
cannot accomplish its mission in the world 
until it has solved rightly the problem of the 
relation of its individual members to wealth. 
It has been handicapped for centuries, at least, 
by the lack of means to carry out its legitimate 
purposes. Two things are needed in order to 
correct this evil: one is a sufficient motive for 
giving, that is, the realization of such motive; 
the other is some regulative principle to gov- 
ern our giving. This little book deals with 
both of these questions, but especially with 
the latter. The motive is the fact that we are 
not our own, having been bought with a price, 
and that we owe all that we have to God for the 
redemption He has given us in His Son, Jesus 
Christ. In other v/ords, love is the supreme 
motive for Christian giving, but this love is 
grounded upon the fact of our redemption. The 
regulative principle advocated in this work, as 

5 



Introduction 

the minimum amount of our giving, is the 
tithing system. Men may give more, and 
should often give more, than one-tenth of their 
income, but never less. This principle is very 
strongly presented, and we are bound to say 
that the book meets satisfactorily many of the 
objections urged against it. 

It is clear that some regulative principle is 
needed in the matter of giving. The mere will- 
ingness to give is not enough. It is not un- 
reasonable to suppose that the principle of 
tithing, or the giving of one-tenth of our in- 
come, less the expense of securing it, was in- 
tended to be such a regulative principle, both 
before and after the Law of Moses, as well as 
during the Mosaic dispensation. It is certain 
that the general observance of this principle of 
giving, as a minimum requirement, would 
vastly increase the resources of the Church, 
greatly advance its work in the world and bring 
a great spiritual blessing to its members. 

I commend this little book to the careful and 
conscientious consideration of all who wish to 
meet the full measure of their obligation to the 
kingdom of God. J. H. Garrison. 

St, Louis, July 15, 1904, 



6 



CONTENTS 

Preface 3 

Introduction 5 

PART I. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Office of Church Membership . 11 

II. Talents in the Church ...... 15 

III. The Sacred and the Secular .... 18 

IV. Acknowledgment of God's Ownership 25 
V. The Parable of the Unjust Steward . 27 

VI. The Parable of the Talents .... 35 

PART II. 

I. The Church in Organized Effort . . 49 

II. Church Business ........ 55 

III. The Question that Confronts Us . . 63 

IV. A Law Needed 71 

V. What is the Law? 81 

PART III. 

I. Tithing Considered 89 

II. What the New Testament Teaches . 94 

III. The Early Church 105 

IV. The Law in its Relation to the Spir- 

itual 112 

V. 123 
VI. Some Practical Questions 134 



PART I 



CHAPTER I 

THE OFFICE OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. 
"He that cannot paint must grind the colors." 

The word office^ as used in religious thought, 
carries with it the idea of delegated authority 
by the appointment of men, and is confined 
mainly to this idea. But this, while true in 
the main, is yet restrictive, and if, in regard to 
the membership, is not corrected and broadened 
destroys the possibility of the body of Christ — 
the Church — assuming its normal function. It 
should be understood that the appointment to 
any office in the church does not come from 
arbitrary measures given to or assumed by 
man, but the recognition of qualifications pos- 
sessed that make fitness in the appointment. 
It is, *^IvOok ye out, therefore, brethren, from 
among you seven men of good report, full of the 
Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over 
this business." And it was the complaint 
of mismanagement of the distribution of funds 
that necessitated the appointment and made its 

expediency. These men were appointed to 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

this ofHce because they possessed the qualifica- 
tions, and because the grace of God was quick- 
ening the church into genuine liberality. 

Without recognizing this principle, congre- 
gations have been putting into office men 
wholly unfitted for that to which set apart. 
Hardly any other mistake has been more detri- 
mental to the cause of Christ than just this one 
thing; even a misfit in the pulpit is not so 
serious. No right is given to any congregation 
to appoint, nor to any man to accept, any 
place of authority in the church for which 
nature and grace have not fitted him. 

But there is the office of membership, which 
every one is fitted to perform; a function 
answering to the privileges and duties that are 
the right and order of every Christian life. 
**For we are his workmanship, created in Christ 
Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared 
that we should walk in them.'' The Apostle 
Paul indicates this in another passage. '*We 
Yv^ho are many members in one body ... all 
have not the same office," but that we are 
members of the one body indicates that we 
have some office if not the same office. The apt 
illustration of the church compared with the 
body that, '*If the foot shall say. Because I am 
not the hand, I am not of the body: it is 

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For Christian Liberality 

not therefore not of the body. And if the ear 
shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am 
therefore not of the body; it is not therefore not 
of the body. . . . But now hath God set the 
members each one of them in the body^ even as it 
pleased him," clearly indicates the oflSce of 
membership for each and every member of the 
body of Christ. 

In the light of the above it will be seen what 
is really the significance of the word office. It 
is a charge or trust which any one is fitted 
to perform, which is conferred by God himself 
because of the new relation into which one 
comes as a member of the body of Christ, 
the Church. We have magnified the places 
we are given to appoint, and minim^ized those 
God appoints, when he *'sets the members 
each one of them in the body.'' And as long 
as we are blind to this truth, we shall greatly 
hinder the progress of the church. As long as 
the individual responsibility is unrecognized 
or overshadowed, so long will the members 
of the body languish and be inert. And it 
is time we were coming to recognize this impor- 
tant truth, and make known to every confessing 
heart that it is saved for something as well 
as from something. And if the office of mem- 
bership does not assume some positive form of 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

activity, it is wholly inadequate to hold the 
affections. Church membership is one of *' con- 
tinuous function, a quantity that has no inter- 
ruption in the continuity of its real values, 
as the variable changes between any specified 
limits." The specified limits are neither 
ordered nor proposed by man, nor are they 
limits shutting out but confining to, ^. ^., each 
and every member must be in continuous co- 
operative activity to be normal, and according 
to the degree they thus function with the body 
are they an essential element in its growth and 
progress. It is as much to the interest of 
the individual to do this as it is for the body to 
recognize it when done, even more so, because 
it is God who hath set us as members in 
the body. 



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For Christian Liberality 



CHAPTER II 

TALENTS IN THE CHURCH. 
"Every man cannot be vicar of Bowden." 

The assembly privileges, flowing out of con- 
gregational organization and the conduct of 
public worship, has accumulated much in all 
these centuries that cannot be accounted for 
in principle or practice, if a rigid scriptural 
rule were allowed. And it is a question 
whether or not much of the usefulness of 
church members is not lost or destroyed because 
of the emphasis we have placed upon the privi- 
leges of the public assembly, to the neglect of 
the importance of the individual life and char- 
acter outside these privileges. The finished 
product of the modern pastor, with the air of 
professional clericalism about him, is one of 
the results, and the divorcement from any vital 
interest and activity upon the part of the 
greater majority, is another. 

If you would fully comprehend what the 
above suggests, just take an observant view 
of the situation which presents itself. See the 
number of organizations necessary, the number 
of committees and sub-committees in each, see 

15 



The Scriptural Foundation 

the need of meetings of each organization, each 
committee, and add thereto the regular meet- 
ings of the church proper, and what does it all 
mean? As for a day of rest, for the active 
Christian now, this is impossible. And though 
unintended, is it not true that if one is to 
be recognized in all this, he must be either the 
chairman or a member of a committee? Is 
it not also true that one's ability to take some 
part in the public meetings, called services, 
is largely the measure of his Christian activity? 
If one has this bent of mind he is pressed 
into service, and if he has not, he is moved to 
think he is failing in his share of the work. 
The talents of the church are thought to lie 
along these lines, and in religion the ability 
to pray or speak in public, or lead in meeting, 
and to do these with facility, is to be considered 
talented. The business of the Lord is too 
much looked upon as a thing of the tongue, 
a readiness of speech, forgetting that 

** In aU labor there is profit; 
But the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.'* 

Have we not passed by the talents that are 
as much needed in the church, and which 
to draw out would save many a man as a man, 
and for the church as a member? Are the 
professional man, the business man, and the 

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For Christian Liberality 

laborer to be enlisted by getting them to make 
talks? Are tliey to be impressed with the idea 
that a natural aptitude in this direction, or the 
acquired habit, is the largest measure of their 
usefulness in the church? 

The mutual business of both the pulpit and 
the pew is to live Christian lives, but is this 
and a service like the above the whole measure 
of the office of church membership? a reali- 
zation of the talents in the church? It ought 
never to be a question (outside of personal 
relations to holiness) whether one can speak, 
sing, or pray in public, for in any or all 
of these we might be wholly deficient. Even 
the attendance upon public worship, while 
necessary, and which is erroneously called 
service, ought never to be considered the only 
thing, nor but just a small part of the thing 
necessary. When the needs (not wants) of the 
body are met, when the purity of the life 
and purposes is conserved, then the life, and 
all that grows out of it, ought to be more 
possible of consecration to the work and 
worship of God; something that would be soul- 
satisfying, something that would fill the void of 
the heart in the weekday to praise and 
magnify the name of our heavenly Father 
on Sunday. And until the talents of the 
2 17 



The Scriptural Foundation 

churcli are understood as furnishing this need of 
the individual soul, there will always be a 
deficiency in worship in the public assembly. 



CHAPTER III 

THE SACRED AND THE SECUI.AR. 

" A man's reach must exceed his grasp, 
Or what's a heaven for?" 

The real problem lies in an undiscovered 
path, and it is one of the strange anomalies that 
it has remained undiscovered so long; it is 
the secret that a man's calling has a sig- 
nificance not before recognized. You cannot 
separate a man's calling from his personality or 
his life. It is the personality that usually influ- 
ences the choosing of one's vocation. In theo- 
logical thought the person of the believer 
* 'stands related to substance, in the person being 
the living manifestation^ in this sense, of the 
common nature in the individual." If the 
person and life of the believer is holy, it stands 
to reason that the vocation must not only 
not vitiate that holiness, but become in some 
measure an aid, for the capacity for a man's 
being ought not in the nature of things to be 
overbalanced by his capabilities for doing, and 

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For Christian Liberality 

cannot be so in the providence of a wise God. 
More or less distinctly in all religions is the 
thought expressed, that because of a man's 
relation to supreme power, certain things are 
obligations in him, as well as other things 
are to be avoided at the peril of suffering, 
and this is more truly manifest in the Christian 
religion than all others, even the Mosaic 
institution. And it must be expected that the 
Christian religion, as a remedial system of 
reconciliation— ''an institution for bringing 
man back to God"— would impose obligations 
in the very things that most occupied his 
time and his talents, and that would bind him 
anew to love, serve and delight in God. But 
we have come to make a distinction right 
here that violates this principle. The dis- 
tinction of the works of man being sacred 
and secular, calling those sacred that are 
directly in the line of religious work, and those 
secular that are not. This distinction without 
a difference cannot be borne out in principle 
if the Scriptures furnish any light. As our 
ideas are associated in the nature of spiritual 
things directly, there may be a small measure 
of truth in this, that the minister's calling has a 
spiritual significance peculiarly its own as dif- 
fering from professions and business; but as 

19 



The Scriptural Foundation 

it concerns the individual, and directly as he 
may be interested and connected with church 
life, it is no more sacred than these latter. 
The carpenter's bench is as sacred as the minis- 
ter's pulpit, and the associations of the same 
may be made as hallowed to the toiler thereat 
as the sacred desk is to the expounder of 
the truth, and if it cannot be made so, then the 
minister has an unreasonable expectation in 
saving the carpenter to and for the church. 
And if the ministry does not know this, it 
is time it should, for herein, 

'' New foes arise, 
Threatening to bind men's souls with 
Secular chains." 

For instead of growing together, the sacred 
gathering increment from the secular, they 
have grown apart, the latter absorbing all. 
**In our earthly modes of thinking we push the 
sacred and secular far apart, as if they were two 
different worlds, or, at any rate, opposite hemis- 
pheres of the same world, with but few points 
of contact between them." To the ministry 
alone is ascribed the sacred^ while the body 
of the membership is engaged in secular pur- 
suits. Asa result, the tide of material progress 
has not favored the Church, nor brought the 
praiseworthy approval of the *' Giver of every 

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For Christian Liberality 

good and perfect gift." The Church was 
never richer in income nor poorer in adequate 
return; covetousness is the besetting sin of 
to-day. Of all the serious problems confronting 
the Church, the material progress and pros- 
perity that is hers, is the greatest. *^ For it 
is to be considered," says Scott, in his Christian 
lyife, ^Hhat men of secular life and conversation 
are generally so engaged in the business and 
affairs of this world, that they rarely acquire 
skill enough in religion to conduct themselves 
safely to heaven through all those difficulties 
and temptations that lie in their way." 

But the sacred and secular are one, and 
to separate them in thought or practice is 
to separate us from our true relations with 
God. The natural order of things is disturbed 
when we expect the capacity for a man's being 
to be contradicted by his capabilities for doing. 
If the man is holy, the things he does must 
be sacred, and it is not to be doubted but 
that the Word of God would so treat this matter 
as to indicate the true sacredness of life in 
its dominant phase. ''It is not more hurtful 
than wonderful how generally even good men 
look upon the temporalities of life as merely the 
material for gain— -sordid gain; calling com- 
merce the god of this world, as with the same 

21 



The Scriptural Foundation 

propriety and truth they speak of money as 
**the root of all evil." But temporalities 
are appointed by Providence for the good of 
man, that he may make friends and lay up 
treasure in heaven; perversion and abuse alone 
make them impotent in spiritual force and 
power. The Saviour himself rebukes us 
for letting the sons of this world be wiser in 
this respect than the sons of light, and en- 
courages us to make friends by the means 
of the mammon of unrighteousness. In fact, it 
is inconceivable that the increase and income 
from a man's exertions sustain no relation 
to his spiritual progress, when it must be 
admitted they have so vital a part in his moral 
degeneration. The law of both nature and 
morals is that * ^whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap; if man soweth to the flesh he 
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but if he sow 
to the Spirit, he shall of the Spirit reap life 
everlasting." 

The real meaning of one's vocation is the 
opportunity for exercise therein granted for 
one's faith. The work that we do, which 
gives increase in material things, is a sacred 
work, because it is taking God into partnership 
— becoming his co-workers. ''The secular is 
the sacred on the underside. It is a part of 

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For Christian Liberality 

that great whole we call duty, and in our 
earthly callings, if they are pure and honest, we 
may hear the echo of a heavenly call . . . they 
both look toward heaven, and if the heart 
be only set in that direction, they lead too 
up toward heaven/' 

The false idea throws the whole life of 
the church into disproportionate order and 
arrangement, for the larger proportion of time 
is necessarily devoted to material things, and if 
we conceive this as secular and separated 
from the sacred, our whole thought and work 
will partake of the nature conducive to worldly 
instead of spiritual things, and the inevitable 
result will be the destruction of faith towards 
God. The daily occupancy of the mind must 
afford aid to spiritual growth, and the work 
that prevents this is not the work in which the 
believer should engage; but if we can make the 
trend of things to lead to inspiring and helpful 
thoughts, if we look to the end and see a 
prosperity in which the Lord has a hand, 
and which we recognize, it would be easy 
to remember him first in the division of the 
harvest. This is the solution for filling empty 
pews with earnest worshippers, of filling empty 
church treasuries with liberal offerings, of fill- 
ing empty mouths with food and praise until 

23 



The Scriptural Foundation 

the land shall ring with songs of praise and re- 
joicing. Make all life sacred, consecrate every 
counting room, every work bench, every forge, 
every kitchen, every parlor — every vocation, as ] 

we consecrate every offering, every prayer and 
every song, and we shall all * upraise the Lord 
for his goodness and his wonderful works to 
the children of men.'' 



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For Christian Liberality 



CHAPTER IV 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD'S OWNERSHIP. 

" The earth is Jehovah's, 
And the fulness thereof; 
The world and they that dwell 
Therein."— Ps. 24:1. 

In this materialistic age, men question 
whether God has any concern in the affairs 
of this life, thinking that the laws are fixed and 
there can be no deviation meditated by the 
divine mind, and consequently whatever bear- 
ing the things of this mundane sphere might 
have upon our relationship to God, is entirely 
lost sight of. The I^ord may claim ''the earth 
as his and every beast of the forest," but man 
disputes his ownership of the "fullness of the 
earth," and "the cattle upon a thousand 
hills," and whenever man lays his hand upon 
the raw material, and produces the finished 
product he holds to it as his own, and will 
fill his barns and his bins and propose to 
"eat, drink and be merry." It is no exaggera- 
tion to say this, for the facts prove that men in 
general think that God has given a quit-claim- 
deed to the whole earth. The secular stands 

for self, the sacred for God, and they have 

25 



The Scriptural Foundation 

parted company. Few are they who recognize 
any right of God's ownership and themselves as 
only stewards. The limits are reached if they 
allow the surplus as that to which he may 
have any reasonable expectations. 

It is here the first step is to be taken toward 
conciliatory measures of submission upon the 
part of man toward God in the matter of Chris- 
tian liberality. Man must first know that he is 
but an entrusted steward in all that he counts 
as his own. 

The obligations that should direct our affec- 
tions, desires and intentions, in religion, must 
have this precedence of relation to God as a 
foundation upon which to rest, and that relation 
is our stewardship. If we cannot at first accept 
this — that we are only stewards — the duties and 
obligations that flow out of our covenant of 
faith must then be our guide. The facts and 
conditions before the church for settlement will 
make conclusive evidence. But we know no 
better way to show this than to consider some 
of the parables of our I^ord bearing upon 
this very point, which we shall do in the next 
two chapters. 



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For Christian Liberality 
CHAPTER V 

THK PARABLE OF THK UNJUST STEWARD. 

*'And he said also unto the disciples, There 
was a certain rich man, who had a steward; and 
the same was accused unto him that he was 
wasting his goods. And he called him, and 
said unto him. What is this that I hear of thee? 
render the account of thy stewardship; for 
thou canst be no longer steward. And the 
steward said within himself. What shall I 
do, seeing that my Lord taketh away the 
stewardship from me? I have not strength to 
dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what 
to do, that, when I am put out of the steward- 
ship, they may receive me into their houses. 
And calling to him each one of his Lord's 
debtors, he said to the first. How much owest 
thou unto my Lord? And he said, A hundred 
measures of oil. And he said unto him, 
Take thy bond, and sit down quickly and write 
fifty. Then said he to another. And how much 
owest thou? And he said, A hundred measures 
of wheat. He saith unto him. Take thy bond, 
and write fourscore. And his Lord commended 
the unrighteous steward because he had done 

27 



The Scriptural Foundation 

wisely: for the sons of this world are for 
their own generation wiser than the sons of the 
light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves 
friends by means of the mammon of unright- 
eousness; that, when it shall fail, they may 
receive you into the eternal tabernacles. He 
that is faithful in a very little, is faithful 
also in much: and he that is unrighteous in 
a very little is unrighteous also in much. If 
therefore ye have not been faithful in the 
unrighteous mammon, who will commit to 
your trust the true riches? And if ye have 
not been faithful in that which is another's, 
who will give you that which is your own?" — 
Luke i6:i-i3. 

Having discussed the question of God's own- 
ership, we will find that this parable, among 
other parables, teaches this — that we are only 
stewards of a wise Providence. *'Let us face 
the facts of our existence here, and understand 
the terms on which we live in this present 
world." Are we masters or stewards? If we 
do not ascertain the terms on which we are 
living and using what we use, the judg- 
ment that will be pronounced upon ourselves 
will be the same as upon this man — ^^un- 
righteous stewards," ''wasting our lyord's 
goods." We shall be unjust simply because we 

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For Christian Liberality 

have not regarded ourselves as stewards. If we 
have omitted this — what was our due to 
God and man — the likelihood is, we have in 
possession, or have wasted upon self, what 
belonged to the Lord to whom we are but 
as stewards. 

No one can question that the man of the 
above parable had no right of possession to the 
things under his hand. He was steward and 
not master, and he was accused of wasting 
his master's goods. He had not been faithful 
in that which was another's. The only ques- 
tion in the application for us, is. In what meas- 
ure and in what things will it apply to us, and 
is it really applicable to the question in hand of 
God's universal ownership? It will not serve 
our purpose without the possibility of our 
reaching some conclusion coincident with these 
ideas. 

The context shows in a number of verses 
that Jesus had been talking to '* Pharisees who 
were lovers of money," and to * 'publicans and 
sinners," and if we are not sinners in our trust, 
then we are ''sons of light," and so the prin- 
ciple is applicable to us. As we are advised as 
*'sons of light" to be as wise as the "sons 
of this world," we can trace back in the 
deduction, that if we are "sons of light," 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

then we are stewards. It is not a question 
of wealth that constitutes a stewardship, for 
if it were, then one of the means by which 
we could make friends in the eternal taber- 
nacles is disallowed to the most of us. The 
possibility of thus limiting the parable is cut 
out by the statement in the connection that 
^'he that is faithful in a very little is faithful 
also in much: and he that is unrighteous in a 
very little is unrighteous also in much. The 
connection seems to be this: ''You allege 
you have too little of this world's goods to 
be much concerned with the truth which I have 
now announced; but this is a mistake, for 
fidelity does not depend on the amount en- 
trusted to you, but on the use to which that 
amount, however small, is put by you; and 
that, again, depends on your sense of responsi- 
bility as a steward of God." Let us not forget 
that it is the Lord of the steward that is 
rich, and not the steward. 

But the whole parable must turn upon some 
germane thought, ''the sum of which," says 
Calvin, "is that we should deal humanely 
and benignantly with our neighbors, that when 
we come to the tribunal of God, the fruit of our 
liberality may return to us." The unjust 
steward took what was another's, and with 

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For Christian Liberality 

a worldly-wise beneficence, made friends who 
would receive him when his stewardship failed. 
And we are taught in this to take that which 
comes to us, which is not our own but the 
Lord's, and use it for laying up treasure in 
heaven. 

We have said the steward's unjustness was 
the failure to recognize the position of trust he 
occupied, but how was he wasting his master's 
goods? We are directed how to find the 
answer in his shrewdness. ''What shall I do?" 
says he, "for I am going to be thrown out of a 
job." He had had an easy time at the expense 
of his Lord, and he is not going to be 
thrown out until he can fix a soft place in 
which to light, and now he will lay his 
companions of revel under obligations. Unlike 
the prodigal, he has the resources of another to 
draw upon, and he is not in such hard lines. 
He had been pilfering for self, and he would 
just steal a little more. He had been using his 
office for his own selfish enjoyment, leading 
a hilarious life, wasting his Lord's goods in 
*' riotous living," with companions among 
whom no doubt his Lord's creditors were num- 
bered, for the readiness with which these credi- 
tors accepted the terms of settlement, suggests 
their collusion with his villainy. 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

Even the most cursory reader will observe 
that here there is a point of contact with 
the parable of the prodigal son. The prodigal 
is said to have * 'wasted his substance," the 
steward to have * 'wasted" his master's 
''goods"; the design of Jesus evidently being to 
teach that there are other ways of misusing 
the portion which our heavenly Father gives us 
than by "riotous living." The steward main- 
tained a degree of self-righteous respectability, 
while the prodigal led a dissolute life, knowing 
no restraint in the gratification of his lust 
and appetite. This suggests also that the 
''faring sumptuously every day" of the parable 
of the rich man and Lazarus, and the "hiding 
in the earth" of the one talent in the parable of 
the talents, maintain in principle a very strik- 
ing resemblance. 

Jesus spoke this parable in the presence 
of others as well as his disciples. He chose, 
however, a common fault found among these 
other hearers, which also represents an all 
too common and prevalent sin among unwise 
believers to-day. But what this man did to 
save something out of the ruin coming upon 
him, is what we must do in our repentance 
when the burden of our sin is shown. We must 
convert the perishable mammon of unrighteous- 

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For Christian Liberality 

ness into the imperishable true riches. We 
should now see that what we have belongs 
to another, but that through faithfulness we 
may finally come into our own. We must 
do all along with what is entrusted to us, what 
this man did only at the last. We might 
stay in the appointed place as long as we wish, 
and have altogether the bounty of the Lord 
under our hand if we are but making friends in 
the eternal tabernacles, and laying up enduring 
wealth in the skies which shall be our very own 
— inalienable possessions. 

But the eschatological thought must not 
be so prominent in its rev/ards as the idea 
of the wisdom to guide us in ''this present 
generation." This wisdom involves the char- 
acter built beforehand, and the conscious ap- 
proval of our Lord in the just exercise of our 
trust. Like Cornelius, our prayers and alms 
will go up as memorials before God. The 
Apostle Peter would commend and say, our 
''charity covereth a multitude of sins." Paul 
would warn and encourage, for he would say 
through Timothy, "Charge them that are rich 
in this world, that they be not high-minded, 
nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living 
God . . . that they do good, that they be rich 
in good works, ready to distribute, willing 
3 SS 



The Scriptural Foundation 

to communicate; laying up in store for them- 
selves a good foundation against the time to 
come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." 
The things of this life are '4east," but 
that which is entrusted to us here and now is a 
test of character, and according as we are or are 
not faithful in our management of them, we 
shall or shall not receive that which is greatest 
hereafter. The things of this life shall fail, 
but upon a right use of them we can build 
us a foundation against all time to come. The 
things of this life are the dross of unright- 
eousness, but we can exchange them for the 
real and true riches. The things we now have 
in possession are another's, and we shall be 
despoiled of them, but we shall have after 
awhile that which is our very own. 



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For Christian Liberality 
CHAPTER VI 

THK PARABLK OF THE) TAI^KNTS. 

**FoR [the kingdom of heaven is] as when a 
man, going into another country, called his 
servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 
And unto one he gave five talents, to another 
two, to another one; to each according to 
his several ability; and he went on his journey. 
Straightway he that received the five talents 
went and traded with them, and made other 
five talents. In like manner he also that re- 
ceived the two gained other two. But he that 
received the one went away and digged in the 
earth, and hid his Lord's money. Now, after a 
long time the I<ord of those servants cometh, 
and maketh a reckoning with them. And 
he that received the five talents came and 
brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou 
deliveredst unto me five talents: lo, I have 
gained other five talents. His Lord said unto 
him. Well done, good and faithful servant: thou 
hast been faithful over a few things, I will 
set thee over many things; enter thou into 
the joy of thy Lord. And he also that received 

the two talents came and said. Lord, thou 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

deliveredst unto me two talents: lo, I have 
gained other two talents. His Lord said unto 
him, Well done, good and faithful servant: 
thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will 
set thee over many things; enter thou into 
the joy of thy I^ord. And he also that received 
the one talent came and said, I^ord, I knew thee 
that thou art a hard man, reaping where 
thou didst not sow, and gathering where thou 
didst not scatter; and I was afraid, and went 
away and hid thy talent in the earth; lo, 
thou hast thine own. But his lyord answered 
and said unto him. Thou wicked and sloth- 
ful servant, thou knewest that I reap where 
I sowed not, and gather where I did not scatter; 
thou oughtest therefore to have put my money 
to the bankers, and at my coming I should 
have received back mine own with interest. 
Take ye away therefore the talent from him, 
and give unto him that hath the ten talents. 
For unto every one that hath shall be given, 
and he shall have abundance: but from him 
that hath not, even that which he hath 
shall be taken away. And cast ye out the 
unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." — 
Matthew 25:14-30. 

The chief points of the parable which bear 

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For Christian Liberality 

upon our topic, are comprehended in the four 
following divisions as important truths concern- 
ing work for the kingdom of God: — 

1. The talents disposed of are the property 
of their I^ord, and his ownership never ceases. 
A long-time tarrying, a continued use that 
turns the property into double increase, does in 
no sense transfer the ownership. 

2. The servants to whom the talents are 
committed are not hired servants of their Lord, 
but purchased property. He had the impera- 
tive right to ask what he did of them, and was 
gracious in the trust he committed to them. 

3. The talents were distributed 'Ho each 
according to his several ability," which made 
them relatively equal. The groundwork of 
their individual character was recognized, and 
not abolished by subjection to a common stan- 
dard. 

4. It follows that their lord had the right 
to expect an increase from the invested proper- 
ty, as it and the servants were both his. The 
servants could but justly, and with gratitude, 
recognize this in a reasonably proportionate 
payment as a debt imposed. They were solely 
dependent upon him. Their living — the bulk 
of the increase — went to them, and nothing but 
dishonesty and laziness could cause them to 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

insist on keeping to themselves that with 
which they had been entrusted for the good of 
others. 

I. Certain features in the parable fix, with- 
out question, the continued ownership of the 
lord over the committed talents, and that the 
unprofitable servant does not offer this as an 
excuse, but speaks of *Hhy talent'' and '^ thine 
own," is a feature that is usually overlooked in 
seeking to bring out the other important prin- 
ciple on which faithful service is valued in the 
divine kingdom. And while the latter is the 
most specific feature indirectly conveyed, yet if 
the ownership is not kept prominently in mind, 
the force of the required service is weakened. 
If the unfaithful, one-talented, could ever have 
gotten the question of rightful ownership out 
of mind, he would have been as little troubled 
as those are to-day who have long ago so dis- 
posed of their stewardship. 

(a) The householder travels into a far coun- 
try and tarries a long time; long enough to 
permit every opportunity being given the ser- 
vants to manifest their character in the trust. 
The fig-tree was left in the garden, and addi- 
tional care and effort bestowed after time had 
shown no fruit nor indications thereof. The 

characters of the servants begin immediately 

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For Christian Liberality 

to show in their actions; the profitable servants 
allow *'no grass to grow under their feet"; 
they go * ^straightway" to their trust, while the 
unprofitable man but ^'goes away," and only 
to ^^dig" and '4aide." 

(b) Whatever the time to elapse before the 
master's return, it was sufficient for the five- 
talented to get out all his to interest and profit- 
sharing, and with such a substantial increase 
from large capital, it was time enough for the 
lesser trust to have been put out, even as a 
loan, to have brought a moderate return. 

2. That the servants were the householder's 
own, his purchased property, involves another 
important consideration, manifesting a gracious 
n^aster's rule. Here are servants provided for 
with the comforts and necessaries of life; it is 
a householder leaving his servants in posses- 
sion, and adding talents to relieve the tedium 
of his absence and offer an incentive to the 
expectancy of his return. They are not left to 
provide for themselves, for all this, the house- 
holder remembers, is his duty to those of his 
own household, yet they have this to manage 
and prepare, the same as they did when he was 
present, but this is subsidiary and subservient 
to the exercise of the trust left with them, 
lyike the first truth, it is this, too, that should 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

not be forgotten in our application of the para- 
ble. Here is the base ingratitude of the wicked 
servant, and we must note this. He is his 
lord's servant, he partakes daily of his bounty, 
he is clothed and fed, housed and warmed, and 
accepts, besides, an additional gift, which is 
intended to draw out his capabilities, and 
which, in the acceptance, it is implied he will 
keep as a trust. And what does the ingrate do 
but deny all, and call his lord *'a hard master, 
reaping and gathering where he did not sow 
nor scatter." The graciousness of his lord's 
reply shows no begrudging of what the man 
had received as a member of his household, 
but indicates the ingratitude that would keep 
back what was entrusted for the good of others 
only. The natural increase of productive talent 
was prevented in withdrawing it from the 
channel of progress in which it was its nature 
to flow, and why did not this fellow put it 
there? His accusation against his lord indi- 
cates the character of the man, for as Richter 
says: *' Never does a man portray his character 
more vividly than in his manner of portraying 
another." One who could make such an unjust 
assertion must have been troubled with some- 
thing more than '^fear"; his *' wickedness" 
indicates knavery. His sin was an abuse of 

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For Christian Liberality 

opportunities more than a neglect of them, and 
could be nothing but defaulting with funds not 
his own. That the man looks upon the one 
talent as a limitation that cannot more than 
meet his own selfish wants, is the only consist- 
ent interpretation of what was his sin in the 
'* hiding." Though he understands well enough 
the purpose for which the talent was given, yet 
he must appropriate it for his own use. Indo- 
lence alone would eat up the capital, but it does 
not meet the case in hand to adjudge it in this 
manner. The talent is a small capital com- 
mitted to a measurable ability. To have even 
put it out on interest would not have met the 
requirements made of the servant, nor have 
returned what was conferred, for it was the 
servant that was receiving his sustenance to 
make use of the trust. This both unprofitable 
and wicked servant, shows the natural perver- 
sity of selfishness which can so habituate itself 
in misappropriation as to think the talents be- 
long only to self. This man is not a man of 
timidity, who would make no investment for 
fear of loss, neither was there any real fear of 
his master, but the defiant attitude assumed, 
and the bold and false declaration show him to 
be a miserable sinner. This man could but 

justly be cast out from light and plenty for his 

41 



The Scriptural Foundation 

base ingratitude and defaulting use of another's 
bounty. This man is a fair counterpart of the 
unjust steward. 

A too literal interpretation would make the 
talent to be so many dollars and cents which 
could be actually buried, and, too, could have 
been returned little the worse for burial. 
Though we understand the parable states the 
talent to have been taken away and given to 
him that had the ten, we believe that he did not 
have anything to return. What he had was 
opportunity correlated with his ability. He 
was one of those who ^^seemeth to have" but 
*'hath not." In the full meaning of a talent 
it is impossible to keep it in its originality if 
buried; it must be circulating and multiplying 
or it is wasting. In the physical world this 
law is patent to all. The unused faculty dies, 
the unused muscle dwindles and disappears. 

3. This parable does not teach that the 
many-talented are more faithful, or the few- 
talented any the less so, as influenced by the 
talents themselves. That the five goes to one, 
two to another, and one to the last, is not in- 
tended to teach any classification, but simply 
that the Lord recognizes the capabilities of 
men in the bestowal of his gifts. He gave to 
*'each man according to his several ability." 

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For Christian Liberality 

Viewing the real sin of the unfaithful ser- 
vant, his temptation was not so great as either 
of the others. The greater trust, and power to 
use, appeals more to the flesh than smaller 
talents. The case of the rich young ruler il- 
lustrates the power of wealth over the flesh; 
because **he had great possessions" he went 
away sorrowful when told the responsibility 
that was his, and that he should divide these 
with the poor. Now if the one talent stood for 
poverty the case would be different, but it stood 
also for necessities out of which he was to make 
no denial to return what was not his own. The 
principle of the parable covers the case of all 
humanity. For extreme riches or poverty God 
is not directly responsible, if we consider the 
correlation of natural and spiritual laws. A 
man may be poorest when he is extremely rich, 
or he may be richest in the very extremes of 
poverty. We measure these things by tempor- 
ality, and they appear differently according to 
the relative points of view from which we 
behold them. 

4. The imperative demand of work upon 
all the citizens of the kingdom is certainly the 
didactic significance of this parable, and we 
shall not be forcing the figure in the require- 
ments of this discussion of Christian liberality, 

43 



The Scriptural Foundation 

but we wish to call attention to the main differ- 
ence between this and the former parable. The 
former emphasizes the thought of stewardship 
mainly, though it touches upon the purposes of 
that stewardship in showing the wisdom w^e 
need to exercise, but this one enunciates the 
principle more practically. It gives time for 
its development, it shows the more common 
office of servant rather than an entrusted and 
wise supervisor of a rich man's finance, it 
shows the more universal distribution of oppor- 
tunity according to the ability of each, and now 
the cardinal virtue, prompt action in the real 
intention of the imparted gift, the increase or 
doubling itself of five and five, and two and 
two. Nothing can more strikingly impress us 
with the sense of obligation ''than the man- 
ner in which the religious application breaks 
through the parabolic form of representation." 
* 'The spiritual is shaped by the natural, so that 
the lowest in the scale of natural ability," for 
his unfaithfulness receives the pronouncement 
of an awful doom upon his head, however 
mildly we might interpret it, while the two 
faithful ''enter into the joy of their lord." 
And what joy that must have been! While we 
must avoid the sin of the unprofitable servant, 
we should rather seek its avoidance in faithful 

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For Christian Liberality 

service that we may have the positive benedic- 
tion of ^^Well done, good and faithful servant." 
There is a tacit understanding here of a reward 
for fidelity. 

Trench, in his notes on the parables, gives 
an instructive eastern tale that runs almost 
parallel with this parable. It is as follows: 

There went a man from home: and to his neighbors twain 
He gave, to keep for him, two sacks of golden grain. 
Deep in the cellar one the precious charge concealed; 
And forth the other went and strewed it in his field. 
The man returns at last — asks of the first his sack: 
*'Here, take it; *tis the same; thou hast it safely back.'* 
Unharmed it shows without; but when he would explore 
His sack's recesses, corn there finds he now no more: 
One half of all therein proves rotten and decayed, 
Upon the other half have worm and mildew preyed. 
The putrid heap to him in ire he doth return; 
Then of the other asks, *' Where is my sack of corn?" 
WTio answered, **Comewith me, behold how it has sped,'* 
And took and showed him his fields with waving harvest 

spread. 
Then cheerfully the man laughed out and cried, **This one 
Had insight, to make up for the other that had none: 
The letter he observed, but thou the precept sense; 
And thus to thee and me shall profit grow from hence; 
In harvest thou shalt fill two sacks of corn for me, 
The residue of right remains in full for thee." 



45 



PART II 



CHAPTER I 

THE CHURCH IN ORGANIZED EFFORT. 

It ought to be conspicuously evident that 
there is a very grave fault somewhere in the 
organization or effort of the church as now con- 
ducted, when with the undertaking before her 
of winning the world to her Lord, she so poorly 
conducts her financial affairs. The ever present 
and never settled consideration is ^*how can the 
present organism find its real function in the 
expression of its faith," for the individual by 
whom organized and for the individual for 
whom organized? The question is not an ag- 
gregate but an individual one, for individuality 
is before organization. The assembly privi- 
leges, flowing out of organization, are right 
and necessary, but there must be more purpose 
in them and more effectiveness through them. 
They are not the summum bonum of a Christian 
experience, but the means of its expression. 
Public worship must thus be put beyond the 
toiler's fellowship, but that fellowship must be 
the groundwork of its erection, the outcome of 
necessary things of an everyday life, and the 
expression of that life. 
4 49 



The Scriptural Foundation 

How, then, can the present organization and 
sub-organizations furnish the means for enlist- 
ing the interest of all its parts? Under the 
present system and the false views that are 
held, they are but makeshifts, serving as cor- 
rectives, but candid confessions of weakness 
that are but temporarily remedial. They pro- 
pose no more than to enlist an interest in one 
or more works of the church, by specializing 
that work, and laboring towards the end of its 
accomplishment. And yet there is no organ- 
ization, outside of the church proper, nor any 
number combined, that has enlisted, or can 
enlist, the whole membership. Shall organiza- 
tion be continued until the need is compre- 
hended? Is it not a question already of over- 
organization — more mechanism than there is 
energy to run ? 

We are not entering any complaint against 
good works thus done, nor questioning the zeal 
and earnestness of those who are so nobly 
struggling against such heavy odds; we are 
asking, rather, a consideration of the facts that 
confront us. The manner and purpose usually 
found in all organized effort is not in itself to 
be condemned, nor ought it to be abolished. 
But passing the necessity of organized effort, 
which no one will question, to do things *^de- 

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For Christian Liberality 

cently and in order," but not forgetting the 
inexpediency of at least some superfluous and 
abortive attempts, it must be considered that 
organization is not the end, but the means to 
the end. For what is the real condition of the 
church to-day? Have you, dear reader, stopped 
to consider this matter? We are prone to think 
few people have any realization of the real con- 
ditions, and the story these conditions tell. If 
the present arrangement and management can 
be called a system, we note that it puts the 
wits of the wisest to weariness to follow any 
liberal policy in religious undertakings. 

The local work is nearest best done, because 
it is nearest at hand; but what a struggle! A 
settled minister can hardly conserve the forces 
at hand, and the congregation is hard to find 
that, in its maturity, has maintained the ratio 
of work to numbers from its inception. The 
yearly periodical visits of an evangelist is as 
necessary to quicken her pulse as to arouse 
sinners. And where is the congregation that 
shows the mature development of its individual 
members that time and the lyord ought to yield? 
The enlargement, if any, comes from the im- 
pact of forces without more than from within. 

L^et us take, for example, a local congrega- 
tion for illustration. And this is not only a 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

real case, but a fair sample generally to be 
found. There is a congregation in a fairly 
prosperous town of four thousand people, that 
has been organized about twelve years and 
more, and for the most time has had regular 
preaching by the assistance of the State Board. 
They were soon in a little house of their own, 
which was afterwards sold, and another modern, 
but thoroughly equipped brick structure took 
its place, the entire cost of which was about 
$5,000. The current expenses for preaching, 
janitor, coal, lights, music, and interest of a 
debt which they yet owe on their property, 
amount to about ninety dollars per month. 
The membership numbers about one hundred 
and the contributors about fifty, with a pledged 
amount of about fifty-five dollars, which was 
afterwards raised to eighty-seven. But some 
fell short in payment, others moved away, and 
the year finds them in debt with a deficit of 
more than two hundred dollars. A small 
amount for missions, seventy dollars or more, 
was given, but the first payment of three hun- 
dred dollars on a debt of fifteen hundred held 
by the Extension Board was not met. Suppers 
and entertainments assisted largely, as it was, 
and a collector was necessary. Almost no work 
of benevolence was done, nor thought of. But 

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For Christian Liberality 

in that town there were forty or more members 
who had not united with that congregation, 
and yet everything was more than ordinarily 
harmonious and the people respectable, and so 
considered by the entire community. None 
were rich, but few were really poor. The esti- 
mated income of this people was about thirty 
thousand dollars, a low estimate. The same 
conditions could be numbered in the thousands 
with congregations like situated. 

Now this situation forms the largest measure 
of hope for the revenue that is to conduct our 
missionary enterprises and benevolent institu- 
tions, and the average is fair in the sum total 
of offerings ($75) to these organizations. 
These local works may be substantially estab- 
lished, but the amount that oftentimes is sent 
in from the outside to assist, it may be many 
years before it is ever balanced by missionary 
offerings that come out. 

It is not for lack of organization that this 
and other congregations thus have to struggle, 
for they usually have their full complement. 
The minister, the elders and deacons, aid socie- 
ty, organist, choir and janitor for the church; 
superintendent, assistant, secretary, treasurer 
and teachers for the Sunday-school; president, 
secretary, treasurer and committees for the 

53 



The Scriptural Foundation 

senior C. E. , and the same for the junior socie- 
ty; the C. W. B. M. for interest and instruc- 
tion in missions among the women; and alto- 
gether very thoroughly organized. 

Then outside the congregation we have our 
State, Home and Foreign Boards, all well and 
thoroughly organized, yet their burden and 
constant care is not the execution of plans and 
purposes, and the expenditure of moneys, but 
the ceaseless round of bringing into line the 
churches to support the work these organiza- 
tions are set to carry on. By far the larger 
part of their work is how to get the funds than 
how to expend them, and more than two-thirds 
of that which they do get would never be 
gotten, if they did not forever keep at us. The 
truth of the matter is, the system works by 
outward compulsion and not by the inward im- 
pelling of the grace of giving. Church and 
mission boards are always without adequate 
funds to further half the works proposed, and 
more effort is spent in securing available funds 
than in carrying out plans. But it is not an 
organic trouble with the body ecclesiastic, but 
a functional disorder of the members in the 
body, for the life of the body is the sum of the 
functions of its various parts and members. 



54 



For Christian Liberality 
CHAPTER II 

CHURCH BUSINESS. 

The primary meaning of business is ''that 
whicli busies one, or that which engages the 
time, attentions, or labor of any, as his princi- 
pal concern and interest. '^ In this chapter, 
however, we shall not discuss that which is the 
''principal interest and concern'' of the church, 
but a phase which deals with the financial con- 
duct, and even the mercantile transactions, by 
which the church attempts to fulfill the mis- 
sion of her "principal interest and concern." 
If there be another more serious problem than 
this one; if there be another in which more 
vast and far-reaching consequences are in- 
volved; if there be another more stupendous 
proposition, in proportion to the sum invested, 
which is the "principal concern and interest'' 
of the Church of Jesus Christ, we are safe in 
saying that it has never come to light. We 
have stood before it as if dazed, and the 
astounding fact is that this most profound 
problem is the most neglected one in the 
church. If there is any question about the 
consideration of which the church displays a 

more querulous temper, we have not as yet 

55 



The Scriptural Foundation 

heard of it. Why is this? Can any one an- 
swer? 

But the church has not been idle in the 
matter. She has sought to answer the prob- 
lem, and it is to just a few of these abortive 
attempts that we shall next devote ourselves. 
We have to face facts as we shall find them, 
and shall attempt to consider the real and pal- 
pable conditions as known to us. 

The beginning point of the investigation 
must be the local, congregational organization. 
And the run of circumstances, from its incep- 
tion to permanency, affords only the variety 
that varying communities and circumstances 
necessarily require, but throughout, from birth 
to growth, the same things in principle are 
involved. There are exceptions, which are as 
distinct in type as the races of men, but these 
exceptions are the proof of the rule. 

After organization the essential thing is a 
distinctly church home, and through the rou- 
tine of sacrifices and suppers, savings and sales, 
servings and socials, the organization goes till 
they have the house and its accompanying 
debt. The tower or steeple may have helped 
enlarge the latter, and are as comparable as the 
conversation of two youngsters as to whose 

house had the most ornaments. One little 

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For Christian Liberality 

fellow said, *^ We've got a cupola on our 
house," while the other, with withering scorn, 
said, ^'That ain't nothin' ; we've got a mortgage 
on ours!" 

Next is, and always is, the maintenance of a 
preacher. The subscription paper is out, and 
after much effort the required amount is nearly 
raised, but rarely is it that more than this item 
is considered, and the current expenses are 
usually left to take care of themselves, to be 
met probably by the * 'collections." Rare, also, 
is it that all subscriptions are paid, and the 
very unusual thing is the increase of a subscrip- 
tion by any one, yet these things have been 
done by force of circumstances. Every organ- 
ization involves, from the start, the question of 
money obligations, and they are always present 
and always increasing. 

These are not all of this matter, for you 

have the missionary enterprises as the logical 

sequence involved in your organization, and 

with the instinct of bees they come for their 

right of store. But what congregation foresees 

these as a /rz<9r/ necessities, and not as following 

upon causative energies? But when we have 

fallen down, then the aid society comes in to 

help us, and right nobly do they come to the 

rescue, 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

The business of the church has nearly 
always looked upon the end, the dollar, that 
alone would meet the exigency of the present 
need, and entirely lost sight of the means, at 
least of the deteriorating effect of the means, 
by which it was acquired. Within and without 
the church, the present system of financiering 
the kingdom is one of the crying shames of 
Christendom. The church has come to be 
looked upon, even by some of her professing 
adherents, as a beggar whose importunities are 
to be dreaded as the plague. The world no 
less dreads her mendicancy; and the practices 
followed by some are enough to repel its good 
will and kill its respect. There, too, has been 
a measure of concession made by the church to 
worldly pleasures and practices that has prac- 
tically nullified the convictions of the Spirit in 
regard to sin. There is no question but what 
the complaint made that *'the church is always 
crying for money" is true; the constant and 
persistent appeal for money is a *^hue and a 
cry" dreaded by a class of church members as 
the * 'hue and cry" of the law that in earlier 
days was raised when felons were pursued. 
After we have looked at some examples of busi- 
ness projects of the church, we shall then pay 

our respects to the unjust complaint made 

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For Christian Liberality 

against her because of her appeals for money. 

A portion of the church will sometimes plan, 
and push a little scheme of their own. They 
will spend one day in converting some house- 
hold provisions, that cost nothing (?), into 
delicious, toothsome, inside wearing apparel; 
will spend the next day and evening in labor 
and worry, sale and hurry that fatigues and 
frets, only to cajole the rest of the members, 
and a few outsiders, into opening their uncon- 
secrated pocket-books and capacious stomachs, 
for profit. They keep only one side of the 
account, and after that is footed up, there is 
great rejoicing over the splendid success of the 
affair. One side does all of the giving, and the 
other all of the receiving, a sort of scheme of 
^'robbing Peter to pay Paul." 

These schemes that are devised to cajole peo- 
ple out of money in spite of themselves, are on 
the same moral plane as the decoy duck of the 
hunter; in method like the deer-stalker who 
carries a bell and gives the huntsman an oppor- 
tunity to bag the game while the deer is listen- 
ing to the sound of the bell. 

The exigencies of each recurring case, and 

the palatable and pleasurable success of the 

event, are but a temporary effort and effect, and 

with the large outlay necessary it makes profit 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

impossible. And it is strange that the system 
has not long ago been abandoned as futile and 
fruitless. That it is unscriptural is manifest in 
the facts — a derogation of God's law and a de- 
traction from the religion we profess. In it we 
do not sow to the grace of giving, and cannot 
expect the fruits of that grace. The motives 
are only temporary in appeal and effect, the 
limit is reached in the satiety of the senses. 
The ephemeral popularity of these plans can 
never suggest any thought of obligation, and 
no such claims rest in the minds of the patrons 
of these enterprises. 

We cannot impugn the good intentions of 
the promoters of these things; they are noble 
in comparison with the mean selfishness that 
needs the tickling to relax its purse-strings, 
and when set beside that class of people who 
feel no compunctions of conscience in repudi- 
ating an honest debt, or are so shiftless as to 
let others assume their portion of the burden, 
they shine as the brightness of the stars in the 
firmament. But what can be the matter with 
a religion which leaves its urgent call to be 
wafted upon the wings of fickle fancy and pre- 
carious appetite? 

Does the church keep up its din of cry for 

money? Shame upon sham.e that we have to 

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For Christian Liberality 

confess it! And he that reiterates it in rebuke 
for silence, does not know the shame he heaps 
upon the virtuous grace of Christian liberality. 
The cry is but the cry for bread of starving 
children. If there is too large a measure of 
self-sufficiency in the life of the church, it is 
but the necessity that would maintain the self- 
respect for the house of God. When the church 
goes out before the world with outreached hand 
for help, and keeps back in her coffers the real 
wealth of the kingdom, and in her preferred 
mendicancy she goes about clothed in the gar- 
ments of respectability, she is indeed lost to all 
pride and self-respect, but if at home she pre- 
sents her cause and need, when that has never 
reached her Lord's intentions through her, 
then it is only the unregenerate, the covetous 
and the miserly who will repudiate their own 
obligations. The cry would never be heard if 
selfish greed and covetousness were not the 
besetting sin of the church. 

The mistake we have made has been our 
timidity that is childish, and if ever we heed 
the voices that would scare us from our task of 
building the walls of Zion, instead of strength- 
ening our hands with larger undertakings to 
awaken strength of character and make appeal 

to manhood, we shall not dwell within the 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

walls of a peaceful Jerusalem. The plans 
ought to be so large as to become an imperative 
call to every member of the body of Christ. 



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For Christian Liberality 
CHAPTER III 

THE QUESTION THAT CONFRONTS US. 

"Man does not live by bread alone.*' 

We must have the spirit of the apostle to 
the Gentiles to get at this question; we must 
* ^become all things to all men that by all 
means we may save some.^' An exceptional 
solicitude should attract us toward those who 
have not carried the weight of the kingdom 
upon their hearts, for we shall find we are deal- 
ing, for the most part, with very children. 
The smoking flax must not be quenched, the 
bruised reed must not be broken. 

The manner of conducting the business of 
the church to-day is to be deprecated, but as 
this has been the solution many have found as 
expeditious, if not expedient, we must consider 
its long standing and the educational effect it 
has had, and that these things cannot be over- 
thrown in a moment. Having concurred with 
this prevalent notion that Christian liberality 
is left wholly to the inclinations of the individ- 
ual, we find we have to combat the evil with 
the harmlessness of doves but with the wisdom 
of serpents — taking our lesson, in some meas- 
ure, from the men of this world. 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

Fortified also with the armor of an ever 
present and pressing problem to maintain an 
existence, there it is, *' never shamed as arro- 
gant selfishness of prosperity, and never miti- 
gated as only embittered resentments of want" 
— the question of a living. It is so high and 
deep that genuine Christian liberality has never 
sounded its bottom nor climbed its height. If 
any form of infidelity is universally denied, it 
is *^the failure to provide for one's own"; all 
repudiate it in theory if not in fact. 

*'What is a living?" This, to be answered 
anywhere, would be found so very different 
somewhere else as to involve the question in 
uncertitude. The answers in different coun- 
tries would be as far apart as the countries 
themselves. Even the answer of one man in 
a community would be radically different from 
that of another. Difference of birth and sta- 
tion makes a difference in both opinion and 
fact. There never was a query propounded 
that could equal this one for a possible variety 
of answers, and if the church is to await its 
bounty at the door of this problem, it will be 
the church and not man that will go begging. 
There is a solution to be found before we get 
here, and it can be more clearly shown by ad- 

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For Christian Liberality 

dressing ourselves to this confronting dilemma 
than in passing it by. 

A man looks at his income if it is small and 
he has a struggle *^to keep the wolf from the 
door," and he does not think he has a living. 
It may be a dollar a day, but another man who 
gets three dollars a day may look at his wages 
as hardly a living. These two extremes afford 
a difference of opinion. So it is not the gross 
income by which we can measure a living. 
Station, the locality, and the number in family 
varies. A small house, frugal fare, decent 
clothing, and a common education will answer 
for one, while a more expensive house of spa- 
cious rooms, generous board, fine clothing and 
a costly education another may deem essential 
to comfort and respect. In the face of this, 
what is a living, and who can fix the limit? 
The cases are where conditions like the above 
have been reversed, yet the excuses are just as 
valid to each, while existence will go on; but 
the church is neither richer by the one, nor 
poorer for the other. We wonder, oftentimes, 
how some people do on as little as they do, in 
their reverses. Their wages may be cut in 
half, sickness and death make inroads upon 
their small earnings, yet they seem to fare 
well, and finally recover lost ground. Some- 
5 65 



The Scriptural Foundation 

times they come to actual want, but there are 
thousands of these who do not starve— they 
live. 

A family of six may be easily cared for on 
fifty dollars a month, but another of three, next 
door, will find it difficult to manage with sev- 
enty-five. The matter of appearances, the 
style of living that pride suggests, makes a fair 
competency but a pittance for them. A third 
case may be illustrated by a single man who 
inherits a small income from a father who was 
in the habit of spending fifty thousand a year, 
but inherits, as well, a vested interest in his 
revenue. Public expectations, and, worst of 
all, habits, have been formed on such a costly 
model, that he is perplexed and really poor 
with five thousand a year. Each of these three 
branches of modifications has innumerable off- 
shoots, going to show how this matter is to be 
measured; and if the church is to receive any 
share, after the question of a living is answered, 
the scale of adjustment must aim to have the 
possessor keep pace with bounty, and ease the 
struggle to noble acknowledgment. Even pov- 
erty's grind must not be driven away from the 
blessedness of giving. But as our social and 

industrial life becomes more and more intense, 

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For Christian Liberality 

the gulf between the workingman and the 
church becomes wider and deeper. 

If there is not some answer for this dispro- 
portion of circumstances, some solution for the 
questions they raise, how is the interest and 
fellowship of either to be enlisted for the 
church? Suppose the local work does get into 
financial straits, or a call goes over the land for 
a quarter of a million for missions, how are you 
ever going to reach these men? There is the 
future to be provided for, and no man knows 
what the morrow will bring forth. If '^a man 
must live," which is an article found in the 
creeds of all men, what answer can we give to 
the must? This dangerous half truth means 
that the first duty is to i^rovide for this life. 
The tempter once sought to overcome our Lord 
with the same sophistry, and was answered 
that ''Man shall not live by bread alone, but 
by every v/ord that proceedeth out of the mouth 
of God." There is a portion of this world's 
goods with which v/e are intrusted, that is as 
dangerous to tamper with as the forbidden 
fruit of the Garden of Eden. 

''If a man would save his life he must lose 
it," which is a denial of the above half truth. 
Presuming that man's first duty is to seek for 
self, it denies that we should "seek first the 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

kingdom of God, and all these things shall be 
added unto you." It means that we shall lay 
up for ourselves first, then lay up treasure in 
heaven. It means that if a man has to work 
hard all the week and feels too tired to go to 
church on the Lord's day, that the physical 
man must come first, if the spiritual has to 
starve. It means, to some, that a man has a 
right to steal if he is starving, and to do so is 
no sin in the sight of God. 

If this doctrine is true, Abraham sinned in 
offering Isaac; the Israelites v/ere doing no 
wrong in crying for bread in the wilderness; 
that Jesus would not have sinned had he turned 
the stones into bread; that there would have 
been no martyrs in the early Christian ages; 
that there w^ould be no church to-day. 

God has not forgotten the life of man, neither 
in the physical nor spiritual sense. ^* Behold 
the birds of the heavens that they sow not, 
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and 
your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not 
ye of much more value than they? And why 
are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider 
the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil 
not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you 
that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 
like one of these. But if God doth so clothe 

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For Christian Liberality 

the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to- 
morrow is cast into the oven, shall not he much 
more clothe you, O ye of little faith? . . 
But seek ye first his kingdom and his righteous- 
ness, and all these things shall be added unto 
you." This is not a denial of '^a man must 
live," but shows the only real assurance of life. 
*'Aman must live," is an ungrateful imputa- 
tion against a gracious Providence, *4n which 
we live and move and have our being;" it is a 
wicked excuse for withholding what is God's 
due, and a want of repentance that would re- 
store fourfold. Is a man more just than God? 
for that a man must live is recognized by man. 
For services rendered a man generally gets his 
living, and something besides. The industri- 
ous usually profit enough that they care well 
for their own, — have a good home; yet neither 
they nor their employers think this any more 
than right. But the employer expects, also, to 
get profit for the work that the laborer does 
after he has paid him his wages. Will not our 
heavenly Father do as much, and more besides? 
**If we give good gifts unto our children, how 
much more will our heavenly Father give good 
gifts unto them that ask him?" And if we 
grant the right to our fellowmen to profit by 
our labors, shall we deny it to God? And as 

69 



The Scriptural Foundation 

God owns us, our time and our talents, is it 
more than right that he should have a fair re- 
turn, when the whole investment is his? 

The church, unlike all other organizations, 
requires but the professed faith to the funda- 
mental facts of Christianity, and the attendant 
conformity to the institutions that the lyord 
has established, for membership. And rich 
and poor, high and low, learned and ignorant, 
find welcome in her folds, and the charity 
thereof covers a multitude of sins. But God 
recognizes every one of his laws in causing 
*'all things to work together for man's good," 
and while it is a fitting industry that gives us 
the fat of the land, it is also the recognition of 
* 'God's purposes" in the call that causes all 
things to work together for good, and neither 
can be slighted and the intended good follow. 



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For Christian Liberality 



CHAPTER IV 

A LAW NKKDKD. 

"I had not known coveting, except the law had said. Thou shalt 
not covet."— Rom. 7:7. 

It is the common consent of the majority, 
that under the Christian dispensation, there 
is no law regulating the disposal of one's 
possessions; *Hhat the idea of such a duty 
is without foundation; that we are each at 
liberty to choose what portion of his possessions 
he shall give away, from the nearest approach 
to nothing, upward.'' Is such the case? and is 
it conceivable? so '^that if one give a tenth, 
and another a ninetieth, and another a thous- 
andth part, they differ not in this, — that one is 
liberal, the other covetous, and the third a 
wretch, but in this, — that the one is liberal, the 
other less liberal, and the other less so still; 
each of them practicing a virtue, a voluntary 
virtue, only in various degrees? This is the 
plain meaning and practical application of a 
notion which floats in undefined thought, and 
is often expressed in vague language by many 
excellent people, — a notion about Christianity 
leaving the amount of liberality to the self- 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

imposed duty, or purpose, or inclination posses- 
sing the individual/' The present system has 
grown out of this theory, founded upon the 
idea, it would seem, that little or no such 
grace is to be found in the believer's heart, or 
if so, it is but a fickle fancy, that needs to 
be wooed, but can never be wed. 

'^If this view be correct, then it follows that 
in Christian morals we have a virtue which 
has no minimum limit, no expiring point; 
which continues to be a virtue down to within 
a hair's breadth of nothing, no matter how 
largely mixed with the opposite vice, ... Is 
liberality the one virtue which Christianity has 
abandoned, in this cold world, to every man's 
whim, which she never pronounces violated 
so long as it is not totally renounced and 
abjured? Surely there is some point far short 
of nothing, at which gifts cease to be 'liberal' 
and begin to be *vile'; at which a giver ceases 
to be 'bountiful' and deserves to be called 
a 'churl.' " 

Touching, as this matter does, the cor- 
relation of faith and works, it cannot be a mere 
caprice in man's make-up. The question can 
hardly be so indefinite, so liable, in the foibles 
and frailties of human nature, to utter annihila- 
tion. "If Christianity has left benevolence 

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For Christian Liberality 

entirely to private decision, it also follows 
that^ while those branches of expenditure which 
regard our self-interest are regulated by fixed 
circumstances^ that which is for the glory of God 
is at the mercy of chance, ^^ *^ Every claim 
of self-interest has its proportion not ill-defined; 
is it probable that while every outlay that 
nourishes self is regular, that only outlay 
which tends to free us from earth, and connects 
our hopes with a better country, is precisely 
the one which the religion of the I<ord Jesus 
Christ has left to be the football of passion 
or accident?" 

This cannot be! It, in all reason, requires 
some ground upon which to rest, some defined 
boundary, that both revelation and the solidar- 
ity of the race would fix as a fair propor- 
tion. We find that the Old Testament did fix a 
proportion, which was an abundant benevo- 
lence for a segregated race religion, but yet was 
a fixed minimum less than which the Israelite 
could not consecrate to the service of his God 
without a trespass against his religion. Shall 
it then be said that the law of the grace of 
giving found in the New Testament lowers 
this minimum standard, leaving the Christian 
to be more earthly and less noble? Is the self- 
denial, of which the Savior speaks, below 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

the limit of the Jewish? Then we can lawfully 
be more selfish than the Jew without reproach. 
*^It is come to this, that our Christianity of 
love and sacrifice lets down the standard of 
this special virtue below the point where it 
stood when she came to warm the world." 

The whole social fabric is the test of Chris- 
tian liberality, and if it could be shown that 
there is no fixed proportion — a minimum limit 
— of one's increase imposed by our I^ord upon 
us, the conditions themselves as they now exist 
demand a universal law of giving adequate 
to these conditions. This proposition needs no 
argument. The whole system of redemption, 
is, from first to last, one prodigious process 
of giving. '^God so loved the world that 
he gave his only begotten Son," Christ so 
loved us that *^ while we were yet sinners 
he died for us." And we are '*to remember 
the words of the I^ord Jesus, that he him- 
self said. It is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive." One of the oddest things in all argu- 
ment is that the passage, *'the I^ord loveth 
a cheerful giver," is the passage relied upon as 
a cover for a liberty of giving, which will even 
withhold any gift because *^ cheerfulness" could 
not be present to witness the gift! 

The wisdom of God has not thus put his own 

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For Christian Liberality 

institution beyond his power, by committing it 
to the imperfect wisdom and the limited power 
of human instruments. Man has that place in 
the scheme of redemption that makes such a 
law an absolute necessity, in order that God 
should control his own affairs. This is beyond 
question. Then why do we quibble about the 
word law? What else can we call it? and what 
is the distinction we would make here? Law 
but carries with it the thought of, '*A rule of 
being or conduct, a controlling regulation; the 
mode or order according to which an agent or 
power acts." And this expresses the very 
thing that this whole investigation suggests. If 
we shall at all admit obligations here, it must 
not only be universal but proportionate, for 
there are other considerations that can never be 
answered without it. There are many who feel 
there is some measure of giving required, but 
they are in the dark as to what that is. That 
God has laid upon us other and pressing duties 
which require our ministry also, involves the 
settlement with seeming conflicting interests. 
Then in beginning, having had pressure of 
habit that knows no economy for such purposes, 
and having never known a real dependence upon 
God, it might have been expected that it 
would be a serious problem. And we are frank 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

to say that human nature without some guid- 
ing law that would fix a relative duty, is not of 
itself capable of fixing the proportion. Know- 
ing no dependence that could alone lead into a 
proper trust of a Father's provisional care, they 
could hardly grow into a grace of this kind 
without instruction and exercise. The bald 
statement that ^'one ought to give," without 
proper guidance, would be about as apt to 
educate one in this grace as to say, *^A child 
ought to learn," and make no provision for his 
schooling. And to push the claims of the gos- 
pel, however many and pressing they may be, 
and yet not recognize this difficulty and seek to 
remove it, is to expect the impossible. 

We are forced to accept the conclusion that 
the promulgation of the gospel, committed to 
man, is a far bigger thing than we have ever 
conceived it, but not more than we are equal to 
by the grace and law of God. '^How shall they 
hear without a preacher, and how shall they 
preach except they be sent?" is the question of 
the ages, and it has come to us for answering. 

Here we have confronted the call of the 

Church for finance, and the growing demands 

of missions — the thousand and one calls for 

money, and we have seen how our best efforts 

fail to meet what we have already undertaken 

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For Christian Liberality 

as the least we ought to do, and we must con- 
clude that a law is needed. Has that law been 
given, and what is it? Until all the obligations, 
assumed and proposed, are met, there is no 
escape from the conclusion that there is such a 
law, let it be what it may, and found where it 
will. 

When the clearer and more easily distin- 
guished light of revelation was given God's 
chosen people after deliverance from bondage and 
idols, it contained specific laws closely analogous 
to the above suggestion. They were not permit- 
ted to wander without rule or guidance in a 
moral wilderness, nor were they permitted to en- 
ter the promised land until the morale of their 
life and conduct was forestalled in this regard. 
They were coming into '^a land flowing with 
milk and honey,'' and Moses said, ^^for Jehovah 
will surely bless thee in the land which Jehovah 
thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to pos- 
sess it." Yet he said also, '^the poor will 
never cease out of the land," which was provi- 
dentially met by the command, ''Thou shalt 
surely open thy hand unto thy brother, to thy 
needy, and to thy poor in the land," that they 
should not be in want among their brethren. 
But even the general prosperity was dependent, 
not only upon the above injunction, but also 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

upon the condition, **If only thou diligently 
hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to 
observe all these commandments which I com- 
mand thee this day.'' 

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is ''the 
called out" of God's children, and it is among 
the moral certainties that the general principles 
involved in the moral nature of man at one 
time, and recognized and forestalled in the first 
deliverance, would not be neglected in the last. 
And the facts indicate that revelation has been 
the forerunning light that has led us into the 
land of promise, power and plenty, and it should 
be among the necessary considerations that we, 
too, should be safeguarded as they were. Civili- 
zation's light is God's word, and the wonderful 
prosperity and wealth of this nation make im- 
perative some such regulative restrictions as 
correlated with these things. We cannot be 
blind to the presence of God in these powers and 
possibilities, and there is no question but what 
they bespeak some definite instructions that 
shall turn them into praise of Him who gave 
them, and his praiseworthy approval of our use of 
them. Things that have proven themselves to be 
such a mighty force for evil, through the weak- 
ness of the flesh and the strength of God's law 

which says, ''Thou shalt not covet," certainly 

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For Christian Liberality 

must be looked upon as under law whicb would 
obviate this tendency and turn them into a 
spiritual uplift. If there is no such law we do 
not reckon right upon God, and are much mis- 
taken as to what we have read in Scripture. 
As it is a fundamental principle, it underlies 
all revelation, and is dealt with as axiomatic. 

In the childhood of the race it was particu- 
larized; it is not now a new commandment but 
an old one, as found in both old and new Testa- 
ments, and whatever the law it is fulfilled in 
this, *'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," 
and *'that ye love one another." And we shall 
find some way to unite into a consistent whole 
these various anomalies and contending princi- 
ples that we have found in the affairs of relig- 
ion. 

What is the meaning of the wealth of our 
nation? Is it to be estimated only in figures? 
The Church is the richest institution on earth, 
when we consider the possessions and prosperity 
of her members; but counting her pretensions 
and work, she is the most beggarly, both in her 
doing and manner of getting. Why is this? It 
cannot be because of what she stands for, nor 
because there is no way to correct it; this would 
be to deny her divine origin. It cannot be be- 
cause of the inability of those composing her 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

members, for the facts utterly refute the insin- 
uation. It cannot be because she will not, for 
this would be to deny her very existence; we 
cannot be followers of Jesus Christ and thus 
deny him, in stiff-necked resistance to his im- 
parted spirit. 

These observations not only prove a law 
needed but indicate it must have been given. 
We shall proceed to show the correctness of our 
conclusions, but first, we think it best to con- 
sider some of the prevailing notions of what 
that law is under the dispensation of grace. 



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For Christian Liberality 
CHAPTER V. 

WHAT IS THK LAW? 
"Every man a law unto himself." 

Thb many think it is but a principle involved, 
the direction it shall take and the order and 
amount being at the discretion of the possessor; 
that each is ''a law unto himself." And the 
following are the opinions as to the only laws 
allowable. 

** Systematic Giving." — This is the rule of 
some, and where other things are equal, and 
were it universal, there could hardly be any 
complaint. We ought to and we must have sys- 
tem in our religion and benevolences, but system 
is *^the regular method or order, arrangement 
or plan which one may follow," and if in giv- 
ing we have no regulating influence, no defi- 
nite instructions, and recognize no other obliga- 
tion than we ourselves establish, while it may 
be systematic, it may be wholly unequal to what 
is required and to what we are able. What 
shall be the time and the amount that shall en- 
ter into a system? is a question before the sys- 
tem. We could give yearly the sum of five 
dollars for preaching and only a dollar to any 
6 81 



The Scriptural Foundation 

and all missions of our choosing, and make this 
the rule of life, and yet be both rich and stingy. 
With an income of a thousand a year we could 
be systematic and punctually drop but a nickel 
a week into the collection basket, and give to 
each mission call a twenty-five-cent piece. To 
be systematic, the question of ability and de- 
mand need not enter in. Systematic giving is 
all right if there is anything in it. 

**Give until you feel it." — One certainly 
ought, and Jesus' measure of the richest gift 
he saw cast into the treasury, while standing 
over against it, was ''the widow's mite," for it 
was all her living. She felt it in more ways 
than one. But his Utopian dream is so change- 
able and so evanescent in its character that it 
would not furnish a substantial enough founda- 
tion even for an air castle. What with liver- 
complaint and indigestion, covetousness and 
greed, it would serve admirably to work upon 
the feelings, but to fill empty church treasuries, 
the best of money beggars have shown it to be 
short measure. Some people are very careful 
about their feelings, and don't care to have 
them hurt. Then ''there are feelings and feel- 
ings," and it would take a wise weather prophet 
who could forecast the results of feelings in 
giving. We have already found that a cold, 

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For Christian Liberality 

bleak Sunday, the first of March will decrease 
the offerings. People have to be careful of 
their health, and they are afraid of ''the grip'' 
on their feelings. Then how many things one's 
feelings are subject to! One may be deeply 
moved to buy a ten dollar hat on Saturday and 
on Sunday to give a dollar to the Lord, but if 
the hat crowns the head on Sunday the feelings 
may be there, but not the dollar. 

Just to give until we feel it would not mend 
matters much, for the less we give in proportion 
to our ability the more we feel it, and we finally 
come to the point where we see our giving 
amounts to so little that we feel it will do no 
good, and we get tired of hurting our feelings 
and quit, for we find this a loophole through 
which our stinginess is ready enough to shove 
us. Some have been moved at times to such 
liberality on account of their feelings towards 
some worthy benevolence that they have never 
recovered for a second benefit. 

''The cheerful giver." — This man is subject 
to the same contagious diseases. Two young 
ladies once sat in church and discussed Bro. 
Skinflint, who, though very rich, only put a 
penny into the collection plate. One of them 
said she supposed that he was giving according 

to scripture. And when the other wondered if 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

the comparison was to the widow's mite, the 
other said, *'The Lord loveth a cheerful giver, 
and Bro. S. wanted to be one of them." 

* * Proportionate giving. ' ' — * ^Upon the first day 
of the week let each one of you lay by him in 
store as he may prosper. " This is fought shy 
of, for it is getting dangerously near the right 
solution, and if we would not take away the 
foundation upon which it rests in both principle 
and practice, it would remain to shame us in 
our miserly dealings with the Lord. But we 
confront the same difficulty we have found in 
the others. Proportion of what? is the ques- 
tion. Fix the proportion and do you fix the 
obligation? Is it the proportion of what we 
have, or what we have left? The question of a 
living, and other previous considerations will 
change and alter circumstances so as to make 
the simple fact of proportion ambiguous. We 
give oftentimes in proportion to what others 
give, or what others may expect us to give. We 
mistake portion for proportion. Then we don't 
know by what standard to measure our prosper- 
ity, and it is not often counted as prosperity 
when we have paid for something we have long 
wanted. You see we have neither a limit nor a 
law here to set the duty and the obligation of 

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For Christian Liberality 

proportion, and we find we are compelled to go 
searcli for some foundation that has been laid 
deep and long, if we expect to build for this 
grace. 



85 



PART III 



CHAPTER I. 

TITHING CONSIDERED. 

"And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the 
land, or of the fruit of the tree, is Jehovah's: it is holy unto Je- 
hovah."— Leviticus 27:30. 

The system of tithing appears as old as the 
race. Colly er says: *^Now since this propor- 
tion of one in ten, is certainly indifferent in 
itself, as one in seven or one in eight, it is rea- 
sonable to suppose that the custom of paying 
tithes so general among different and distant 
nations, must have had some divine direction 
for it, and that it came from Adam to Noah, 
and from him to all posterity until by dispersion 
of Babel it spread over all the world." ' 

Grotius says: *' From the most ancient ages 
a tenth has been regarded as the portion due to 
God, and the evidences of this fact are found 
in both Greek and Latin histories.'' The 
Arabians by law, says Selden in his ** History 
of Tithes," required every merchant to offer a 
tenth of his frankincense to the priests for their 
God; that the Phoenicians, following the exam- 
ple of Abraham, devoted a tenth of their spoils 
of war to holy uses, that it was a custom in 
Italy to pay and vow tithes to their deities un- 

89 



The, Scriptural Foundation 

til the latter times of the Empire; that the Ger- 
man Saxons, who mainly peopled England, 
sacrificed a tenth of all captives to Neptune; 
and that Cicero once exclaimed, ''No man ever 
vowed Hercules a tenth in hope of increasing 
his wit." 

The Carthagenians practiced it, and misfor- 
tune coming on them when their wealth made 
them forget the duty, they repented and re- 
turned to the practice. Didymus of Alexan- 
dria, says it was a Grecian custom to consecrate 
the tenth of their increase to their gods. Xeno- 
phon and Cyrus paid tithes to heathen gods. 

Pliny says the Ethiopians made trade unlaw- 
ful without its observance. And the striking 
words of Montacutius are that ''instances are 
mentioned in history of some nations who do 
not offer sacrifices ; but in the annals of all times 
none are found who do not pay tithes y 

It was certainly practiced very largely before 
the Mosaic institution, and if it was so without 
divine command, it is only accounted for as one 
of the primary notions of humanity, one of in- 
nate principle, and let those believe this who 
may, but it would be the first time to find such 
a thing of faith without some foundation based 
upon revelation. But the striking and forcible 

inference from what is instanced in these cita- 

90 



For Christian Liberality 

tions from history accords with the words of 
Collyer above suggested; we cannot account for 
it without regarding it as of divine origin. Both 
Jew and Gentile were following it together in 
time, and no collusion can be imputed. 

We come now to note the instances on record 
in the earlier ages, as contained in the Old Tes- 
tament. Moses, writing about 1500 B. C, gives 
the first mention as reaching back yet about 500 
years, to Abraham. In Genesis, the 14th chap- 
ter, Abraham is mentioned as paying tithes to 
Melchizedek, priest of God Most High. He 
gave a tenth of the spoil captured from the four 
kings that had warred in the vale of Siddim, 
when Lot had been taken. Abraham would 
hardly have paid tithes of the spoil unless it 
had been a recognized principle with himself, 
which he followed in his own things. He would 
have been a hypocrite to have done so. He was 
not acting for others, for he would not then 
have paid them to Melchizedek; as for himself, 
he would not take so much as a thread or shoe 
latchet. 

The second mention is found in the aSth 
chapter of Genesis, where the account is of Ja- 
cob's leaving home for fear of Esau. His 
dream and vision is the turning point in his 
life. There Jehovah came into his life, and the 

91 



The Scriptural Foundation 

promise of tithe marked his repentance and 
reformation, which we have every reason to be- 
lieve he kept, for God certainly blessed him in 
increase. His was a practical repentance. It 
seems he only then recognized this claim of Je- 
hovah upon him, which he had never given; 
now he would repent and the tithe he would 
render. 

The manner of stating these two instances 
gives the inference of a general prevalence of 
tithing which had evidently been enjoined by 
Jehovah; a conclusion reaffirmed by contempo- 
raneous history. This is confirmed by examin- 
ing Leviticus 27:30, where the simple statement 
is made that ''all the tithe of the land, whether 
of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, 
is the lyord's." The language is in the present 
tense, '4s,'' plainly showing it to have been 
a previously existing and recognized law. Now 
when we examine more fully the Mosaic insti- 
tution, we are astounded at the demands made 
upon the resources of the Jews. We are accus- 
tomed to think "a tithe" was their duty, when 
it is established beyond question they were re- 
quired to pay two tithes, or one-fifth of their en- 
tire income. Some assert, and it cannot be 
successfully denied, that a third tithe was ap- 
portioned, if not yearly, at least every third 

92 



For Christian Liberality 

year. Besides, the first fruits set aside for the 
lyord's service are estimated by Jewish writers 
at one-sixtieth of the entire products of the 
fields and flocks. (Ex. 23:19.) There was also 
the redemption money of the first born (Num- 
bers 18:15-18), the half shekel tax (Ex. 30:11- 
15), and the large number of animals required 
for the temple service. Alexander Campbell 
says of this matter: **I have been calculating 
the amount of property necessary to the sup- 
port of the Jewish religion, and have elaborated 
this result: that one-half of the time and money, 
a full moiety of the whole resources of the na- 
tion was exacted." And this agrees with many 
other writers, who have reached the same con- 
clusion. 



93 



The Scriptural Foundation 
CHAPTER II. 

WHAT THE NKW TESTAMENT TEACHES. 

"For if that which passeth away was with glory, much more 
that which remaineth is in glory.'* — 2 Cor. 3:11. 

The grace of giving is one that comes slowly, 
and God has always recognized this principle, 
and led his people slowly; but ever upward. All 
history testifies to the minimum of one-tenth, 
and it seems to be the foundation upon which lib- 
erality has been built. We see the Jews were 
brought up to liberal giving, reaching one-half, 
and it ought to be no surprise if the New Tes- 
tament shows a cumulative evidence in its favor, 
but rather should we be surprised if it did not. 
If one would answer this question by an honest, 
logical inference from that book, any thought 
of anything less than a tenth is out of the 
question, for he will contemplate a style of giv- 
ing for which less than a tenth, in even the 
poorest poverty, would be a repudiation of faith 
itself, and to reach which but a few choice 
spirits in our day are attempting. They would 
be surrounded by an atmosphere of fervid joy 
and love, the deeds of which are * 'every good 
work, ' ' * 'distributing, ' ' "communicating, ' ' 

94 



For Christian Liberality 

**making sacrifices with which God is well 
pleased;" then they would find examples of 
liberality sanctioned up to the ^'half of his 
goods," as in the case of Zaccheus; and in a 
poor widow up to ^^all her living;" in the 
Apostles * 'forsaking all," individuals ' 'selling 
all," the deeply poor in the depths of poverty, 
giving to the more poor, out of ''a great trial 
of afiiictions," abounding in riches of ''liber- 
ality," giving, yea, "beyond their power," and 
to crown the whole, the Master giving always, 
and storing never, and then giving himself a 
ransom for all. And though these examples 
are never enforced, they are never reproved, but 
commended. They are set forth as worthy of 
emulation, and what they have done, "wher- 
ever this gospel has been preached," has stood 
as monuments to liberality, before which the 
pleadings of self-seeking and covetous greed 
must slink away into darkness, where there is 
"weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

But the weakness of the human heart that is 
not sanctified in the grace of our Lord to know 
the blessedness of giving above receiving, would 
invoke the law of love to save the pocketbook. 
There is a defense offered against any definite 
law, which says, "The law is love." But this 

does not come from those who are troubled with 

95 



The Scriptural Foundation 

over-giving, for the objection is against a law of 
minimum duty — that would prevent the rule 
of selfishness. They think the law of love is 
flexible and perforated on the under side. The 
objectors and their defense are not consistent, 
for law sets bounds, and love, of all laws, is the 
most exacting. Love is least selfish, **seeking 
not its own." It can never feel, never do, never 
give enough. To-morrow it will do what to-day 
seems impossible. The law of love! It is, 
**Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." Would 
they invoke this law? 

Then to the law and to the testimony. The 
New Testament must yield something specific, 
and there are those who would be free, but need 
the stroke of revelation's *^Thus saith the 
Lord" to strike the manacles of selfishness 
from their souls. It is an open question with 
many, even students of the word, whether 
the tithing law is in force under the Christian 
dispensation. From right and wrong motives 
they have thought it one of the things '^ which 
neither they nor their fathers could bear. ' ' We 
can well understand the misunderstanding on 
this point, for we once never gave it any con- 
cern, and after we came to look into the matter 

we only did it because we felt that at least this 

96 



For Christian Liberality 

was required, but not as compulsory, and so 
practiced it for a few years before we came to 
see it as a duty, but now we find sufficient war- 
rant in the New Testament to make it binding 
upon the church to-day, and for this reason are 
writing this work to prove it. Whether our 
grounds are well taken, you, dear reader, must 
judge by the evidence we have set forth. 

The New Testament is a book of principles 
and advances upon the Old Testament as from 
negation to positiveness; from *^Thou shalt 
not" to *'This do and thou shalt live." When 
a matter like the question before us is to be 
settled the moral force of the subject is for con- 
sideration; and if we can't find ^^thou shalt tithe 
all thy income" in the New Testament, shall 
we say the question cannot be proven? The 
eminent Christian statesman, W. E. Gladstone, 
says, **To constitute a moral obligation it is not 
necessary that we have a positive command. 
Probable evidence is binding as well as demon- 
strative evidence; nay, it constitutes the great- 
est portion of the subject matter of duty. And, 
therefore, a dim view of religious truth entails 
an obligation to follow it, as real and valid as 
that which results from a clear and full com- 
prehension." If it could not be established 
that a positive command for tithing is to be 
7 97 



The Scriptural Foundation 

found in the New Testament, certainly there 
must be some evidence adduced, more than is 
forthcoming, to invalidate the claim made for 
its obligatoriness. And with this said we wish 
to examine this book for confirmation of the 
view presented. In view of the fact that there 
is no hint or logical inference in this book that 
the tithe was abolished by Christ's death, *^for 
Christ came not to diminish our obligations but 
to increase them," it remains to be shown why 
it is not yet in force. The tribe of Levi was 
thus supported, and if you couple the *^Go ye 
into all the world and preach the gospel," with 
*'The laborer is worthy of his hire," you must 
show that the tithe is more than equal to these, 
and that whatever that is, is forthcoming. There 
is no minimum limit until the claims of the 
gospel are met. If it can be shown that one 
tithe impoverished the Jew, then it must be 
classed as one of the things *^ which neither 
they nor our fathers could bear," and that this 
was one of the things that Peter referred to. 
Until this is done it must stand. If it can be 
shown that the Christian can live on nine-tenths 
of his income, and as much more as he pleases to 
use, and yet not be guilty of selfishness and cov- 
etousness, even to the rejection of all claims of 
the gospel until he '^ feels like it," then it will 

98 



For Christian Liberality- 
be time enough to say the tithe is not in force. 
If it can be shown that the Christian can bring 
what is left, and the meanest, out of his pros- 
perity, and yet be more acceptable to God than 
the Jew, that by law made only the first of the 
field and flock, and without blemish, acceptable, 
then it will be time enough to believe the tithe 
is abolished. Where does ^^seeking first the 
kingdom, and his righteousness" commence? 
Can God be first, yet come in as last considered? 
Why, it is not a proportion nor any proportion 
that is denied, but the principle involved. The 
tithe was first taken. Now suppose you do not 
consider this amount a duty. Take, then, any 
amount; when vnll you make the reckoning? 
Will you wait until all other claimxS are settled? 
If you could conscientiously consider this ques- 
tion only — that it shall com.e first — you could 
not fail to see what is involved. Take what is 
generally considered as the only law for the 
Christian: '^Upon the first day of the week let 
each one of you lay by him in store as he may 
prosper," and conscientiously live up to it, and 
the law of a tenth will not trouble you, nor will 
you want to dig under it. You can see that 
though there is no fixed scale of proportion 
given in this passage, yet if you seek the an- 
swer from the New Testament^ everything 

99 

L.orc. 



The Scriptural Foundation 

seems to push up the scale to a proportion from 
which nearly all shrink away. 

But the myopia of the selfish soul needs the 
concave lens of truth fixed close to the eye to 
let in the rays of this light; so we turn to the 
passages that specifically speak of this matter. 
Our lyord always sanctioned the law of tithing, 
saying, *^This ye ought to have done," but his 
sanction or reinforcement of the law while he 
is in the flesh cannot, in itself, be taken as evi- 
dence fixing this obligation upon us, for he 
was ''a minister of the circumcision," and his 
earthly ministry was confined to the Jews. His 
disciples were not to go into ''any way of the 
Gentiles." And advocates of tithing have made 
this mistake. The Lord also supported Sab- 
bath keeping and showed its obligation, but this 
does not bind the Sabbath upon us, and yet 
there are many who advocate tithing, that say 
'4t is as binding as the Sabbath," while the 
Jewish Sabbath is not binding at all. If the 
principle involved — that a day of rest is nec- 
essary to soul and body — finds expression in the 
Lord's day, as possessing the moral significance 
that conditions demand, the same argument im- 
poses the tithe also. The gospels really give 
us nothing more than we have inferred. In 

fact, only in the letter to the Hebrews, where 

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For Christian Liberality 

the matter is specifically mentioned, and occur- 
ring when the new Dispensation was in force, 
can we find anything that borders on the need 
of some who demand a ^'thus saith the L<ord." 
And to this we next devote our attention. 

We might grant the intention of the writer 
of the Hebrew letter to be wholly different from 
the purpose for which we quote the passage, 
but the mention of the matter would not have 
its present force if a logical inference cannot be 
drawn from it in support of the claim we are 
making, and there is nothing in all the New 
Testament to contradict this inference. The 
Christian dispensation began with the Jews as 
the first converts, and this letter is written to 
Hebrevv^s, with whom the question of tithing 
was well understood. It is unreasonable to sup- 
pose that a HebrevvT in passing from Judaism 
into the more glorious reign of the Messiah's 
kingdom, would think the ' 'rendering unto God 
the things that were his" meant giving him 
glory by lessening his offerings, or making these 
less obligatory. Now the reasoning of the wri- 
ter of Hebrews to show the greatness of Christ's 
priesthood, in this instance, fastens, not alone 
upon the character of the priesthood of Melchi- 
zedek, but upon Abraham's recognition of the 
same in the payment of the tithe. As Melchi- 

101 



The Scriptural Foundation 

zedek received his office from God without ref- 
erence to his genealogy or the law of a carnal 
commandment, this being unchangeable, so 
Christ received his office without a change of 
law, or being of the tribe of Levi; he passes to 
Abraham's payment of the tithe as a significant 
fact in the argument. Christ is a priest after 
the order of Melchizedek. Abraham is a rep- 
resentative of the race, yet pays tithes to Mel- 
chizedek. The lycvitical is honored also with the 
tithe, then why not he who reigns as priest and 
king? Where would the force of the argument 
have been with a Hebrew, if the tithe had been 
abrogated with the coming of Christ? The ar- 
gument in the payment of the tithe is, that it 
was in existence before the law, but if there is 
exemption from this, as is now claimed, and the 
new dispensation is better for no regulation 
here, it would have been timely for the writer 
to have mentioned the fact of spiritual sacrifices 
being the only necessity and obligation. 

The glory of Christ's eternal priesthood is its 
unchangeableness; this is from God, but man's 
recognition of this glory conies in the 
honor he can bestow through the things in 
which he can minister. The law of a carnal 
commandment renewed and imposed a beautiful 
and expressive recognition of the Levitical 

102 



For Christian Liberality 

priesthood, and ^'how shall not the ministration 
of the spirit be with (at least equal) glory? 
For if the ministration of condemnation hath 
glory, much rather doth the ministration of 
righteousness exceed in glory, for verily that 
which hath been made glorious hath not been 
made glorious in this respect, by reason of the 
glory which surpasseth.'' 

Jesus, sitting on the steps of the temple 
court, watching the multitude paying their 
vows and offerings, was watching an impressive 
spectacle. This temple for God's praise and 
service was to pass away, to be succeeded by 
the temple of his body. Now it is not Jesus, 
but Jesus the Christ who has been and is now a 
silent observer of the offerings put into the 
treasury. We sometimes forget that he is in- 
terested in the treasury. We have formed the 
impression that he is never interested in any- 
thing save what we term spiritual work. If it 
had no relation to spiritual growth this would 
be the right view, but all other religions that 
reach not a degree of mercy's divSpensation that 
is to be found in the multitudinous eleemosy- 
nary institutions of Christianity, nor need mis- 
sionary proclamation, are yet bound to the sys- 
tematic sustaining of their religions. Why 
should Christianity omit this obligation? , Ma- 

103 



The Scriptural Foundation 

hornet commands the tithe. Buddhism incul- 
cates and practices tithing. Mormonism rig- 
idly enforces and systematically pays the tithe 
and flourishes. Seventh Day Adventism is 
strong in its strength, while even the stupen- 
dous fraud of Dowieism is growing rich by its 
observance. But the orthodox religions would 
need to tear down their steeples and strip their 
temples of adornment to pay their honest re- 
ligious obligations, while for numbers and 
wealth their missionary efforts are but child's 
play in comparison. Our barns are filled with 
plenty and our presses burst out with new wine, 
and yet we have not honored God with our sub- 
stance nor with the first fruits of our increase. 
What does our I^ord think of us as he beholds 
our prosperity and its opportunities for a rich 
liberality, and yet sees us counting all things 
else as of first moment and value? 



104 



For Christian Liberality 
CHAPTER III. 

THK KARI^Y CHURCH. 

"And the disciples, every man according to his ability^ deter" 
mined to send relief unto the brethren that dwelt in Judea." — 
Acts 11:29. 

W^ are constrained to think the early Chris- 
tians, the Gentile converts as well as the Jewish, 
observed the law of tithing as a debt, and that 
all mention of gifts and offerings was with the 
presumptive evidence that this v/as so under- 
stood. We cannot see how this would be other- 
wise. This had been the custom of the Hebrews 
as a religious rite, it was observed by the sur- 
rounding nations, and viewing the fact that the 
whole of the New Testament teaching inculcates 
an unprecedented manner of giving, it stands in- 
violable against contradictory but illogical in- 
ference. If it be asked, *'Why do we find so 
little mention made of this matter in the New 
Testament?" we would answer that the envi- 
ronment of that day made it so easily a duty, as 
then in force, that it is only the present day in-- 
difference to the law of this obligation that 
makes it difficult for us to see this, and has ne- 
cessitated a denial of its force. The trouble is 

105 



The Scriptural Foundation 

at this end more than back there. It was no 
doubt as fully practiced as it was under the Mo- 
saic order, but was so naturally an obligation 
that it was accepted and met as all other debts 
were. It was understood under both dispensa- 
tions that man ought to pay his debts, and this 
was one of them. 

We refer the thoughtful reader to the fact that 
according to Origen, Jerome and Chrysostom, 
the early Christian church taught and practiced 
tithing, Bingham in his '^Christian Antiqui- 
ties" says, ''This is the unanimous judgment of 
the Fathers and the voice of the church uncon* 
tradicted for more than a thousand years.'' 
Many of the Fathers thought it binding, and 
councils from the fourth to the fifteenth centu- 
ries, to the number of ten, enjoined it, resting 
the duty, not upon the authority of the eccle- 
siastial law, but upon the word of God. 

The plan or system that Paul gives in the 
i6th chapter of First Corinthians, that is taken 
as the criterion for us, but which is abused in 
both interpretation and in practice, does not 
preclude the idea of tithing being an underlying 
groundwork for pressing the claims of this be- 
nevolent work for the poor in Judea. And if 
any judgment is to be formed at all, it is rather 

that the law was still in force. Try this plan 

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For Christian Liberality 

to-day, and see if there will not need to be *'a 
collection" taken when you go. Is it supposed 
this was the only work of benevolence then 
being done? The same writer in writing to the 
church at Ephesus, and speaking of a thief's 
reformation, gives the keynote of church be- 
nevolence as it was then understood, when he 
says, *'Iyet him that stole steal no more: but 
rather let him labor, working with his hands 
the thing that is good, that he may have whereof 
to give to him that hath need, ' ' The people be- 
fore whom we can press the claims of such a 
benevolence, and ask that it be done in the 
manner the apostle describes, are the people who 
have been accustomed to *4ay aside as they 
may prosper." We would make the whole 
matter to rest in the absence of a ** grudging 
necessity" and to consist in the presence of a 
** cheerfulness," whereas we lose sight of the 
fact it was a * 'bounty" in which the apostle 
might be thought to be too self-interested; to 
guard against which he was careful that others 
were appointed by the churches with him in 
*Hhe matter of this grace." The fact is over- 
looked that they abounded unto the riches of liber- 
ality. It can be seen that not alone has the church 
thus sought to break the heads of those who 
should fill the office of liberality by destroying 

107 



The Scriptural Foundation 

the foundation upon which this grace might 
stand in dutiful stewardship in the Lord's pros- 
pering, but has opened the way for a selfishness 
that is ''earthly, sensual, devilish." 

Some think that the church at Jerusalem be- 
gan with a socialistic and communistic fervor 
in benevolence that has since passed away, and 
is not practicable now. This is based upon two 
unfounded assumptions: First, that the church 
disposed of all their earthly possessions, and, 
second, that they did this because they thought 
the second coming of Christ was at hand. There 
is no foundation for either, and these are 
theories that are hurtful in the extreme. It 
must be remembered that the church was being 
guided into all the truth by the Holy Spirit, 
and only those who deny that the apostles were 
thus led, can accept this. The Holy Spirit can- 
not certainly have left them to such false ideas. 
And to have left them to the dispossession of 
all their earthly store would have been an error 
from which the rebound would have been disas- 
trous to every charity in which the church was 
to engage in Christly ministrations. 

The appointment of ''the seven" to care for 
the neglected widows of the Hellenistic Jews, is 
rather a damper upon this theory of a commu- 
nity of goods. Though "not one of them said 

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For Christian Liberality 

that aught of the things which he possessed 
was his own * * * and neither was there any 
among them that lacked," it was because dis- 
tribution was made to each, ^''according as any 
hadneed.^^ It was not a uniform distribution 
of goods, nor is it reasonable to infer that every 
one among them parted with all his goods. 
That *'as many as had houses and lands," 
means that every one sold their houses, etc., is 
without reason. To believe this is to infer they 
were fanatical and their enthusiasm overstepped 
the bounds of common sense. Their religion 
was not for a day, and there is no need of theo- 
rizing about socialistic rules governing this 
body in a mistaken benevolence that it was 
found afterwards necessary to correct by acting 
more rationally, but it was the sober, yet spon- 
taneous expression of the love of God and man 
that had taken possession of their hearts. 
What they did would be perfectly right and ra- 
tional for the church to do to-day, and what 
she would do if she were to submit to the Spir- 
it's guiding in the stewardship that is com- 
mitted to her. The Mosaic institution made 
ample provision for the unfortunate class, and 
the new dispensation was an awakening among 
the Jews to their neglected duty in genuine be- 
nevolence. 

109 



The Scriptural Foundation 

A realization of the true purposes of posses- 
sions took hold of these converts that made 
them see unlike we see this matter to-day, and 
as long as the *'need of any" was manifest, no 
man counted anything his own until that need 
was met. We see what an awakened conscience 
will do after some definite law has fixed an ob- 
ligation. 

Pass to the record in the eleventh chapter of 
Acts of Apostles and we will see how this mat- 
ter was understood. When the * 'famine to be 
over the whole world" was made known by 
Agabus, through the Spirit, prompt action was 
taken. The same spirit of benevolence was 
manifested as was first seen in Jerusalem. If 
the former had been an outburst of fanatical 
communism, the result would have been a cau- 
tion here to act more slowly. The church in 
its infancy needed as badly as we do to-day to 
know the grace of giving. Giving will always 
be an essential part of the Christian religion, 
and what is most needed in the church to-day 
is to return to the spirit of the early church. 
Theirs was a beginning, but when such is their 
record, what would not be the measure of our 
giving if we had the spirit with our present 
properties and opportunities! 

Has our Lord put his own institution at the 

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For Christian Liberality 

mercy of the mind of the flesh, so in opposition 
to the mind of the spirit? There is a knowl- 
edge we need here that is mediate. The in- 
stances of genuine liberality are too sporadic to 
indicate any ordained law to be in operation, 
whether of the tithe or according to prosperity, 
and it must be that something has intervened 
to nullify its operation, and not that there is no 
such law. 

The Lord has ordained that they who preach 
the gospel should live of the gospel. To or- 
dain a thing is to legislate, or decree that thing 
to be. And when our Lord ordained this thing, 
he meant more than that they who preached 
had the right to be supported, but that the sup- 
port was decreed to come from those who re- 
ceived the gospel, and this rested as a debt 
upon them. This is true also, that every duty 
the gospel imposes is a debt. This was true in 
the case of the Apostle and the Corinthian 
church, and is also a universal obligation. If 
things spiritual have been sowed unto us, is it 
a great matter that the sower should reap our 
carnal things? To what could the ordaining 
refer if not to some regulative principle for our 
living? 



Ill 



The Scriptural Foundation 



CHAPTER IV 

THK LAW IN ITS RKI^ATION TO THE SPIRITUAL. 
"For the upright there are no laws." 

It is inconceivable that any law of God 
would be given that is destitute of moral signifi- 
cance, especially one that dealt with temporal- 
ity by which man lived. ^^God never es- 
tablishes arbitrary institutions nor promulgates 
arbitrary laws^^ in nature or morals. When 
Jehovah sanctioned the system of tithing for 
the Jewish nation, he did not then institute it, 
but recognized it, and as a principle of life and 
not merely for national ends. It contained the 
essence of his goodness and kindness to all 
concerned. As his chosen people journeyed 
to **a land flowing with milk and honey," they 
were coming into conditions that especially 
required the enforcement of such a law. The 
law did not create any duties, it defined them. 
In slavery, without the temple and its worship 
of sacrifice and offering, the people had forgot- 
ten and Jehovah did not enforce the law, 
but as these conditions are changed, the law 
becomes a necessary adjunct. As long as these 

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For Christian Liberality 

conditions remain, and are augmented by 
others more pressing, the law is inviolable. 

A careful examination of the facts will 
clearly show the relation this law sustained 
to the spiritual development and welfare of the 
Israelites. When they neglected this law they 
were in alienation; when they respected it they 
were in favor. The nation became the grand- 
est and richest of earth, and if any inference 
can be drawn, it is that the obedience to 
God's commands in this, gave them this glory. 
Tithes and offerings were observed faithfully in 
these conditions, and as long as they held 
to them the bounty of God was poured out; 
when they withheld them the windows of 
heaven were closed. Hear the prophet Mai- 
achi: ''For from the days of your fathers ye 
have turned aside from mine ordinances, and 
have not kept them. Return unto me, and I 
will return unto you, saith Jehovah of Hosts. 
But ye say, wherein shall we return? Will 
a man rob God? Yet ye rob me. But ye 
say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes 
and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse; for 
ye rob me, even this whole nation. Bring 
ye the tithe into the storehouse, that there 
may be food in my house, and prove me 
herewith, saith Jehovah of Hosts, if I will 
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The Scriptural Foundation 

not open you the windows of heaven, and pour 
out a blessing, that there shall not be room 
enough to receive it." 

The connection is too close not to enable 
us to see the spiritual significance of the law of 
tithing. But some will answer, **That was 
true with the Israelites, for it dealt with the 
childhood of the race, but is not necessary now, 
under the Christian dispensation. ' ' Why think 
this? If it was the childhood of man, it 
was for schooling him, but into what? If they 
could stand this as children, and it was made 
necessary by their religion, what ought to 
be our strength in the manhood of Christ 
and the larger duty of preaching to all the 
world? *'But they would not give without 
it.'' Do we do as much without it? Statistics 
show that Protestantism falls fifty millions short 
of tithing. 

'* Could law make our giving acceptable?" 
Anything that is less than the law of propor- 
tionate ability is not acceptable, and why not 
law make our giving acceptable if it raise it to 
our duty? Does obedience to the letter of the 
law in baptism make it acceptable? No one 
questions but what a wise and gracious use 
could be made of the tithe, and no one who 

knows questions that the church does not give 

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For Christian Liberality 

this much, hardly the minority of her support- 
ers reach it. But this is a consideration that 
never seems to be thought of. The question 
will ever come back to the conditions under the 
Mosaic dispensation, and to those previous as 
well. The last, with but a little ray of heaven's 
light, followed it, and the Israelites did it in 
obedience to law. What then? The need of 
this proportion is more pressing to-day, and if 
we are under a law of grace, is there anywhere 
a suggestion of its rule in our lives, v/hen we 
can care nothing for meeting the conditions? If 
we say we cannot afford it, we are begging the 
question. We know our prosperity, and how 
much superior is our real wealth. God did not 
deal arbitrarily with Jacob. But as the de- 
mands are with us in the world's great need, 
who is to minister to this need? 

Right here is the trouble. For without any 
hint of a law in revelation, we face conditions 
that declare a necessity and arbitrarily estab- 
lish our duty — a fixed obligation until we *'owe 
no man anything." Less than a tithe will not 
do it. 

One of the commandments is **Thou shalt 
not covet." The Apostle Paul says he would 
not have known coveting without this law. Is 
there nothing under the dispensation of grace 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

to help us avoid this sin, by fixing some meas- 
ure of duty? If there is merit in obedience to 
a negative command, reason would suggest, a 
positive ordinance would have some virtue. The 
fact is, the very things the church herself pro- 
poses, and the debt she incurs, rest lightly upon 
her, whereas tithing would leave no such thing 
possible, but would rather create conditions 
that would pave the way for unprecedented ac- 
tivity she has never dreamed of. But the call 
has always had to come from the outside, and 
this objectiveness is not as loud as subjective 
selfishness. But reverse the system and you re- 
verse the conditions. Objections to this ques- 
tion cannot come from its being a law, nor that 
a tenth, and even more, is too large a propor- 
tion, but only from within us — that is either a 
selfishness that hath not^ or a lack of depend- 
ence and trust in our heavenly Father. God 
could not ask more of an Israelite than of 
a Christian, and not be a respecter of persons. 
Our prosperity and the world's need dispute 
any excusable reason for saying the objective 
is less pressing, and these are the only two 
reasons or objections we can offer. 

The chief objection that seems to be offered 
against the tithing system, is that it is restrict- 
ive, so much so as to make giving lose the 

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For Christian Liberality 

grace of cheerfulness. But this can have 
no force save against a fixed arithmetical divis- 
ion, and not to a law of proportion as such. 
But there is a necessary law of **as he may 
prosper," which is a proportionate law and 
is restrictive, even arithmetical. It only be- 
comes a question of what is the restrictive 
duty, what the arithmetical proportion. Is the 
restriction only next to nothing, resting upon 
the bottom-self? Did we name a tenth as the 
high standard of Christian benevolence, and 
confine ourselves to it, this objection might 
be offered, but when we name it only as 
the lowest point at which any footing can 
be found, and leave all above as free, the arrow 
flies below us, for it is then seen why the 
objection is offered. **No man feels the re- 
straint of law so long as he remains within 
the sphere of his liberty — a sphere, by the way, 
always large enough for the full exercise of his 
powers." And where is the liberty that is 
granted to us in the spirit of Christ, without 
which no man is his, that feels the restraint 
of this as a minimum law? The complaint 
is not consistent, for the restriction is a safe- 
guard in which we ought to rejoice because 
it guards our liberty, not interferes with it. 

It stands between us and the covetous who 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

invade the precincts of church privileges at 
the cost of our liberty. There can be no 
condition, where the perfect liberty we plead 
for exists, without an obedience to this law 
so glad and so entire that its restraints are 
unfelt. It would equalize the burden, where 
some now have to carry it all. Were this law 
protecting our liberty, that which we now give 
that goes to make up the deficiency of others, 
might become a bounty for other work which 
we now see no way of providing for. 

Jehovah did not then need, nor does he 
now, any portion of our substance; neither does 
he need any observance of this duty upon 
our part to care for his own creation, that 
he is thus shut up to this means; but the 
exaction comes of our need, and is the reason 
for its enactment. 

*'Will a man rob God?" Can a man rob 
God? Yes, and yes. And it has always been 
that the first departure from God is marked 
by withholding the first fruits of the in- 
crease that gives praise to his name. In this 
we first turn aside from his ordinances, and 
if we will return unto God we must rob him no 
longer. Jacob repented and promised the tithe. 
The prophet Malachi sounds the clarion call to 

repentance, but first denounces the departure in 

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For Christian Liberality 

this matter as robbing God. We have paid 
tribute to Caesar — the government, but have 
not rendered unto God the things that are 
God's, if we have denied this. The tithes 
and offerings are God's. 

It is such a law that would become a bul- 
wark of our liberty; and it would be so because 
it first marks our recognition of a necessary 
duty. We are not to gather from this that 
tithing is the limit of liberality for the Chris- 
tian, it is only liberation that leads to liberality. 
It is a debt we owe, and we are to ^*owe 
no man anything." Until we come under 
its obligations we can never know our privi- 
leges — the debt ''save to love one another." 
It is a recognition of a relationship on the lines 
of which will flow out genuine humility, piety, 
and good works. Like repentance, and part of 
it, it is a preparation for baptism. It becomes 
the seal to our relationship with God the 
Father and man our brother. Constantly it 
stands the memorial to ''seek first the kingdom 
of God." No other duty is so vitally inter- 
twined with the sacredness of labor. God's 
fatherly care can in no other way be so demon- 
strated as in the trust we thus repose in Him. 
"It links our hope of personal comfort with 
the Father of all benevolence." The public 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

assembly for preaching, the study of God's 
word, or the prayer meeting, is never so 
near, nor so closely ties us to heaven as this 
does. Really these others will never be to 
us what they might without this last. *^Nor 
is it unnatural, for the man who prayerfully 
devotes a tenth of his income to God will learn 
how to conserve, and invest, and save, and ex- 
pend his other nine-tenths; he will be held to 
his other Christian vows as he is true to his 
financial obligations; and economy, honesty, 
sobriety and caution will all contribute pros- 
perity, and make it possible for God to trust 
such a man with large resources." 

It is liberality we want; then we are after 
some fixed purpose that will enable us to attain 
to it. We must be just before we are generous, 
and a guiding principle we need to lead us 
there. The grace of God in our hearts needs 
to be cultivated, and tithing affords the oppor- 
tunity, for it is a God-given law. It is the law 
that will afford real opportunities for liberality, 
for it will meet all necessities, that liberality 
might have an opportunity to be truly mani- 
fested. It would teach us as no other duty 
could, how easily we could come into the real 
grace of giving. **It is the natural result, that 
one who will year after year carefully set apart 

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For Christian Liberality 

a fixed proportion for the service of his God, 
will become habituated to feel that he is neither 
the author nor the owner of any fraction of 
property, but merely a steward. And whoever 
thus begins life by keeping this law of propor- 
tion is most likely of all to advance upon it as 
his gracious Father augments his prosperity." 
No one who has ever adopted it, but what would 
voice this statement, and when a far smaller 
per cent was a burden, this became a joy, and 
in cases where the windows of heaven had not 
yet been opened to pour out more than they 
could contain. The testimony of all those who 
have adopted this gracious decree, is that they 
feel themselves to have become capitalists, deal- 
ing in heaven's bounty, for they have found a 
fund growing on their hands that calls for in- 
vestment, and they have become a strange peo- 
ple who look up the treasurers of the churches 
to pay their portion and increase the same, 
while never a call comes but what they have 
something with which to meet it. 

We have said that the tithe is not the maxi- 
mum limit of law or love, but the minimum 
duty. It is the exercise drill of conscience and 
heart that makes possible large hearted and 
joyous liberality. To feel its force is to come 

within the bounds of a system which would 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

develop the life until it would become incor- 
porated with it. Without obedience to this 
law we could not come into the grace of an un- 
speakable gift for which to thank God, and 
without which restraints would not be felt, for 
a religion that does not check our selfishness 
could not come from a God of love. Such a 
law divinely wise and imposed, which makes 
such things possible, will appeal to every true 
child of God, and will be joyously embraced as 
a call to liberty perfecting Christian graces. 



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CHAPTER V. 

''It is acceptable according as a man hath, not according as he 
hath not."— 2 Corinthians 8:12. 

Thk Apostle Paul strikes the keynote of ac- 
ceptable giving in his second Corinthian letter, 
in the passage given above. He was writing of 
just such a matter — this objective grace — the 
gift given by the churches in Achaia and Mace- 
donia to the suffering brethren in Judea. And 
in his exhortation he speaks of what is accept- 
able giving. It is *' according as a man hath, 
not according as he hath not." It might appear 
upon first reading this passage, that the latter 
clause is a reference to that condition in which 
one actually has nothing to give, but this is 
surely not what was in the mind of the writer. 
Such a condition was possible then, as it is now, 
but the intelligence of his hearers was not in 
question, and by inspiration he would not write 
such a thing, for who does not know that inabil- 
ity excuses? But he had seen their readiness to 
promise, now he was guarding against their 
failure, in which he would be put to shame in 
his confidence. They had in the beginning 
already begun to do, but they had willed to do 
more; now he would that they complete the do- 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

ing. As they were ready *'to will, so there 
might be the completion also out of their abil- 
ity;" and it is this, according to their ability, 
that alone could make it acceptable. The 
measure of acceptableness was that of ability, 
not inability. The whole eighth chapter is 
dealing with a wondrous spirit of liberality. 
The churches of Macedonia were set before the 
Corinthian church as worthy of emulation. 
^'AflEliction" and *^deep poverty" were over- 
matched by ^*]oy that abounded unto rich liber- 
ality." ** Beyond their power they gave" and 
''of their own accord." They were found ''be- 
seeching" the Apostle and his companions 
"with much intreaty in regard of this grace 
and the fellowship in the ministering to the 
saints." Now the Apostle was not writing to 
the Corinthian church seeking to have them do, 
or expecting them to do, as they had not. He 
seemed to think there was sufficient ability to 
complete the doing also. He was not after dis- 
tressing them that others might be eased. 

The same thought precisely is used by our 
lyord in the parable of the talents. "To him 
that hath more shall be given, but from him 
that hath not even that which he hath shall be 
taken away." Here we have it! "for it is 

acceptable according as a man hath, not accord- 

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For Christian Liberality 

ing as he hath not/' The question of accept- 
able giving is involved in the proportion of 
one's having. There would be some, no doubt, 
who would give, and their giving would help 
the cause, but it would not be acceptable in the 
sight of God, because it would be a hath not 
gift. It would not be what they ought to give. 
How many hath-not givers there are! They 
have 7tot much interest; they have not much 
purpose; they have not much time; they have 
not much love; and yet they have very ^nuch for 
themselves. What is it in man that will make 
him do, in any measure, when he hath not? 
And v/hy, when he knows it is not acceptable? 
There is a notable instance of this recorded in 
Acts of Apostles. Ananias and Sapphira were 
moved to an act of benevolence by two unholy 
motives — a benevolence in which they had no 
interest. They wished to have the praise of 
men for giving the proceeds of a possession, but 
they were mercenary enough to keep back part 
of the price. It was not according to ability, 
nor prompted by love, but of vanity and miser- 
liness. And yet it is the working of the law in 
weak humanity, that finds an attempt in obedi- 
ence to escape self-condemnation. Objective 
and subjective motives move men in this, and 

it becomes a snare of the soul. It is evident 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

the Holy Spirit was guiding these early believers 
in a holy consecration of property and proceeds 
to the divine cause of their faith; not a dis- 
posal of all their possessions that left them 
homeless and penniless, having neither shelter 
for the body and pursuit of faculties; but such 
self-denial as was quickened into life again by 
dispossession of unnecessaries and hoarded 
wealth. These two covetous persons were not 
ready for this self-abnegation, and yet they 
would appear so. The unmistakable guidance 
of the Holy Spirit they could not avoid nor 
deny, and yet they would have the semblance 
of obedience, if a lie to God and man could give 
it. Hypocrisy finds its greatest opportunity in 
the use and disposition of our earthly possess- 
ions, and they play an immeasurable part in the 
whole religious life. In the instance before us, 
the Apostle seemed to think the Corinthian 
brethren so understood this as to need no com- 
mandment from him; anyway, it would not 
make anything acceptable from those who had 
not. The * ^earnestness of others" was sufficient 
to prove the ^^sincerity of their love.'' The 
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which 
they were made rich, would offer the inspira- 
tion of both means and purpose for this grace; 
and the ^Haw of Christ" they were to fulfill in 

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For Christian Liberality 

bearing one another's burdens, would compre- 
hend *'the wants of the saints'' and ^^abound 
through many thanksgivings unto God." 

What is it that confronts us to-day? Sum up 
the efforts of the present and prevalent systems 
of both the church and the individual. See 
their wasteful, sinful, deteriorating effects. See 
the grinding and gritting movements of the 
financial machinery of every benevolence. Con- 
front and confess the real state of affairs as in- 
dubitable facts, and then turn your eyes upon the 
vast wealth of this nation, and ask if there is 
any possibility of acceptableness, if it is to be 
measured **according as a man hath." 
. Look at our prosperity. This nation spends 
$1,200,000,000 for drink. Our tobacco costs 
us $25,000,000 more than our bread. We spend 
for boots and shoes $335,000,000, and $225,000,- 
000 for sugar and molasses, which does not 
keep every one sweet. While the corsets of 
civilization (?) cost twice what we give to 
world-wide missions. 

Coming immediately home, let us look at the 
wealth of our own people. It is estimated that 
we add to our wealth, after all living expenses 
have been paid, the enormous sum of $38,000,- 
000 annually, which shows we are not poor but 

prosperous. What we spent last year for all 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

religious purposes, $6,193,967, was not quite 
twice the tithe of our added wealth. But as 
the tithe is taken out of all that goes for living 
expenses, we could estimate the tithe of our 
income to be over $25,000,000. 

Do we say that this would be too much? 
Then let us make a comparison that will humil- 
iate us. The Congregationalists, who number 
only a little more than half our members, gave 
to Foreign Missions $845,105, while we gave 
but $178,323 for the same work. Theirs was 
$1 per capita, ours but 17c. We have about 
6,000 members in foreign fields who gave 
$30,000, or about $5 per member; nearly thirty 
times what we gave per member. Fifty thou- 
sand Congregationalists in foreign lands gave 
$167,512, or but little less than what a million 
and a quarter of Disciples gave, who live in this 
rich and prosperous country. Our combined 
missionary efforts fall short of what the Congre- 
gationalists do for Foreign Missions alone by 
$220,000. Think of it! And these are not 
tithers; if they would tithe, these figures would 
seem small in the extreme. 

The late lamented A. M. Atkinson said: 
**There is no peril to which men are exposed, 
and against which they are so carefully guard- 

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For Christian Liberality 

ed and solemnly warned, as that involved in 
the accumulation and possession of wealth." 

The Christian's measure of wealth is not the 
standard by which the wealth of the world is 
measured. The Christian's wealth is found on 
the other side in the secure bank of heaven, 
and the deposits are not counted as wealth by 
the world, and prevents the Christian from ever 
being rich in the eyes of the world. ''As a 
man hath,'* as another, not inspired, has said, 
'4s what he has left when his gift has been of- 
fered." The least that we can have, if it be 
not productive wealth , indicates the larger store 
to be where friends have been made to receive 
us into the eternal tabernacles. To the fruitful 
branch we go, for it is there the rich store of 
fruit is found, but the season over, the branch is 
bare; none has been left to spoil or waste. The 
wealth of a nation is not hoarded but productive 
wealth; the wealth of the church is the same, 
save that with the church its riches are meas- 
ured by the uses to which they are put, "doing 
good, distributed, laid up as a good foundation 
in time to come, built upon life which is life in- 
deed." The foolish-rich lay up for themselves, 
and are not rich toward God. 

The Lord understands us better than we our- 
selves do, and aside from warning against laying 
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The Scriptural Foundation 

up for self, lie has given directions as to the 
disposition of our property. The scriptures 
teem with motives for good deeds that strip us 
of **the weight and sin which doth so easily be- 
set us.'' 

We have added an exposition of the parable 
of the vine which we think makes this clear. 
This parable represents the believer as the 
branch, Jesus as the vine, and the Father as the 
husbandman. We shall pass over the necessity 
of abiding in the vine to bear fruit, and even 
the question of not bearing fruit, as requiring 
the branch to be cut out, for these are self-evi- 
dent. The point of the illustration is found in 
the manner of treating the fruitful branch. 
Every branch in the vine bears fruit, but condi- 
tions arise in which there is need of cleansing 
the branch that it may bear more fruit, and that 
fruit bearing may at all continue. *^Soft rain 
and genial sunshine are the largest experience 
of the vine," and even the pruning is gentle, 
oftentimes, compared with the barrenness that 
may be. But the pruning time comes, and 
comes in a time and a way when the treatment 
has most to do with the vine itself, seemingly 
harsh and unreasonable. The bramble flour- 
ishes and luxuriates without touch of the knife, 
but the poor vine is cut down to the bare stems 

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For Christian Liberality 

and stubs; but the season comes when fruit and 
foliage luxuriantly load the one, and death and 
ashes mark the place of the other. No other 
thing that produces fruit could have served the 
purpose of illustrating the relation of fruit- 
bearing to the care attendant with that result. 
There is first the vital union with him as the 
source of life, then, true to the nature of the 
union, there is produce, or fruit. Year by year, 
however, marks an increase in the bearing, but 
this comes by reason of the husbandman's care 
of the branch; it is cleansed, purged. This 
means all the care necessary to develop the 
fruitfulness of the branch, freeing it from ex- 
crescenses and useless shoots which are a drain 
on the branch for nothing. 

In the vine of nature its pruning is always to 
the uninitiated a matter of w^onder and surprise. 
They think the work but a process of destruc- 
tion, and that if life be left at all, years must 
pass before any fruit will come, to say nothing 
of any abundance. But were not this pruning 
done the vine would finally go to wood and 
leaves, the fruit would lessen in quantity and 
quality, to die soon, or be destroyed as useless. 
But by this process the ratio of increase, is fruit, 

more fruit, much fruit; without it the cutting 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

comes nevertheless, but only for removal and 
burning. 

Now applying this figure to ourselves, we see 
its aptness to the inquiry. By nature man is 
productive, and by the new birth he is none the 
less so, but his '^much fruit" is to **glorify his 
father." The son he chastens; the branch he 
cleanses. The husbandman then cleanses the 
branch, for as the tendency, without care, is that 
the vine go more to wood and foliage than to 
fruit, so it is with us. We would flourish as 
the green tree, we would be barren with the de- 
ception of foliage, like the fig tree which our 
Lord cursed. As the branch needs itself cut 
away that fruit may come, so we need that self 
should be pruned until we bear much fruity 
wherein our father is glorified. The religion of 
our Lord grants us in temporalities a larger ex- 
perience in a richer abundance than it demands 
of us in return. Should we turn upon him in 
such an ungrateful spirit as we do, when as a 
gracious husbandman he would com.e to prune 
us? The means he employs to promote our fer- 
tility sometimes seems so like that which he 
employs to punish the wicked, that we are per- 
plexed — like the cutting of the branch, the 
fruitful and the unfruitful, but the one is pruned 
for cleansing, the other cut for burning. **What 

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For Christian Liberality 

a mercy it is to the believer that it is pruning 
with him and not cutting off!" Should not our 
faith reach beyond self to wait patiently until 
the sap shall again flow from the vine through 
us until growth and fruit vindicate the husband- 
man's tender care? Wonderment upon won- 
derment to note the abundant barrenness of our 
service and the tenderness of our father's prun- 
ing! It seems he is waiting so patiently for us, 
neither has he cut off from us a wonderful in- 
come of increase, nor cut us off from his love; 
he is waiting for the returns, but the day will 
come when the pruning having proven fruitless, 
the cutting will come and the barren branch 
will be cast into the burning. '^God forbid!" 



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The Scriptural Foundation 



CHAPTER VI. 

SOMK PRACTICAI, QUESTIONS. 

"Virtue consists in action." 

As the majority of those who will read this 
book have never understood the tithing system 
to be what we claim — the scriptural foundation 
for Christian liberality — and more likely, still, 
have never practiced it, like all other beginners 
they will need, at least, a few directions. And 
we have thought it wise to append a few prac- 
tical questions and answers to make the subject 
as clear as possible. 

**What is the tithe?" A tenth. 

*^0f what should I pay a tithe?" Of all you 
earn, or the net proceeds of your income. 

*'What do you consider the net income?" 

If you work for a salary, it is the full amount 

of what you receive. If for wages, per day, or 

week, or month, it is the same less the cost of 

tools or other paraphernalia you may have to 

furnish yourself with which to do your work, 

but not clothing, such as overalls, gloves, etc., 

in which you work. If a merchant, it is the 

net proceeds after help, insurance, rent, etc., are 

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For Christian Liberality 

paid. If you are a dealer in the necessities of 
life, the cash value of those things used for 
yourself or family are to be tithed. If a farmer, 
the same holds good as above, help, implements 
(not horses, buggies, etc., for family use), and 
the like are to be deducted, but the cash value 
of all the family consumes, the products sold, 
bartered or exchanged, should be tithed. Land 
held for speculation, the taxes upon the same, 
are to be tithed. When lands, stock, produce, 
increase in value, take account v/hen sold, or 
any part sold. All trades and professions the 
same. Books, office rent, tools, instruments, 
traveling expenses, or whatever is needed to do 
your work, is to be deducted from the amounts 
received, then the tithe paid. But whatever is 
spent for comfort, convenience, necessaries — ■ 
food, clothing, rent, pleasure, health, schooling 
or the like; these are tithable. Your capital, 
whether money, property, brains, hands, or all 
these, is that from which you receive income 
and are not to be tithed, only the income. 

*'When should I begin?" As soon as you see 
this to be your duty. 

'^Suppose I am in debt, what is my duty?" 
To pay the tithe; for who got you into debt? 
Is this debt to be denied because you owe other 
debts? You would have to pay interest on 

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The Scriptural Foundation 

money borrowed whether you owed other debts 
or not. If this were a reason for release from 
this duty, where would it lead? you would only 
have to keep in debt to escape your duty, and 
some would never get to it, for they are never 
out of debt. 

** Should I give any of my tithe to help my 
own relations?" Not if you are legally bound 
to support them; if not, and objects of charity, 
yes, 

'^ Should a minister tithe?'' Certainly. 

*^ Suppose something is left to me, or given to 
me, should that be tithed?" Yes, and then its 
income when invested, but if just that amount 
is needed for an investment, and by taking the 
tithe out the opportunity would be lost, the 
tithe should only be taken from the income. 
All such cases are to be left to the individual 
judgment, only try to follow the principle. 

**How should I use or divide the tithe fund?" 
Any way you think best, but remember the 
fund is for the Lord's work exclusively, especi- 
ally that which honors the church ; therefore the 
church should be liberally supported, and all 
missionary enterprises, which are the work of 
the church, should receive attention. Charity 
should have a large place, and institutions of 

learning that fit men for the ministry. But 

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For Christian Liberality 

having once settled the duty, it will be easy 
enough to arrange these details, and the man- 
agement had best be left to the individual and 
his God. But it will dawn upon one, when the 
habit has been acquired, that other matters out- 
side the church proper, should be of Christian 
liberality, the outcome of building upon the 
foundation — the tithe. Really the tithe belongs 
to the church. 

It is expected that a complaint will be entered 
just here, a complaint that this is getting the 
matter down to so fine a point, making it so 
much a matter of business, that it would make 
it tiresome to observe. This may seem so at 
first, but it will be noticed the protest and con- 
tention we are making avoids this very thing. 
We have been protesting all along against get- 
ting the matter of giving down to a fine pointy 
and the danger of having no point at all. There 
are those who think they are already giving 
more than a tenth, and some are, but this is no 
reason why the matter should not be tested, 
for 'Ve ought to know we have better mem- 
ories for our virtues than for our obligations, 
for the dollars we are giving away than for 
those we receive or spend upon ourselves." It 
is easy for even excellent persons who have not 
tested their givings to exaggerate the amount 

137 



The Scriptural Foundation 

to their own minds. To such as are transcend- 
ing a tenth, and to such who possess the spirit 
of liberality, it might prove helpful to know 
how small is their giving when placed along- 
side of their living, and that their liberality was 
of an abundance that was not needed for self, 
but not liberal if the need in the call is to be 
considered. *'The advantage of deciding that 
a consecrated proportion shall take precedence 
of all other outlay, instead of counting on giv- 
ing what we have to spare, is that it would 
materially affect the scale of personal expendi- 
ture." The spirit of preference for holy feeling 
over selfish care should prevail, and the lesson 
might be needed for self, and as an example to 
others, in the incentive to worthy emulation. 
For while it might do for some to be left free, 
if there were no other considerations beyond 
themselves, yet for the many it will amount to 
no more than is now prevalent. We ought not 
to be afraid of a little trouble in the business in 
which our heavenly Father has an interest. 
And we ought to be very anxious to deal fairly 
with Him. It is not good business to so loosely 
conduct our own affairs, and why deny to Him 
a strict account? The trouble all along has 
been that the church has had no fixedness in 
its resources, and it has come from this very 

138 



For Christian Liberality 

thing. It can't be denied that the church has 
a corporeal existence, and in the eye of the law- 
is considered as a corporation. The church 
has a financial standing, though not always the 
best, and if she is to do any business, the objec- 
tion cannot stand until there is a more fair, just 
and proportionate dealing from her constituents. 
Horace Bushnell says, * 'There is needed one 
more revival among Christians — a revival of 
Christian giving. When that revival comes, 
the kingdom of God will come in a day. ' ' 



139 



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